Doors 7pm, Music 8:30pm

A Night of Soul and R&B!!!

The first thing you notice about McKinley James’ extraordinary new EP Still Standing By is the serious mix of Motown soul and blues-based guitar playing. It doesn’t sound like the type of “blues” you get from traditional purveyors of the genre, but instead from a guitarist who understands chord theory so well you could swear you’re hearing a horn section sometimes. That’s because he leads a trio, and while guitar stores reverberate with licks from ham-fisted modern bluesmen when they don’t know shuffle from shinola, McKinley would walk into that guitar store, plug in, and summon the spirits of his own idols, nearly forgotten pioneers like Otis Rush and Johnny “Guitar” Watson. Still Standing By is his third EP, all of them fine listens, and here’s the thing… McKinley is 19 years old. Already a veteran before he’s old enough to drink. Still Standing By is a six-song feast. Produced by The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach at his Easy Eye Sound studios in Nashville, it’s soul music with a dash of blues growl, all written by McKinley himself (with Patrick Sweany on “Whatever It Takes [For Love]). “Stuck in the Shadows” sets the tone for the disc. “My early influences, there were no horns,” he says, “and so especially with a trio – I love the sound of horns, but you have to fill in the space without them.” In this way he channels the great Chuck Berry, whose patented double stops were written to take the place of horns he didn’t have either. “Clear Skies” is Motown and Rank & File put together with a visit from Tom Petty’s ghost, if you can imagine that. It’s also actually not unlike what British legends The Jam sounded like as they transitioned from rock to R&B. “Whatever it Takes” follows the same lead and dare one say, shows the direction Hendrix might have gone, had he been able to change his musical setup and grow gracefully old like Clapton. McKinley’s favorite is “Spare Change Blues.” Of it, he says, “It actually revolves around the guitar I play now, an ES-335, because I really wanted to buy that guitar, and it took me about two or three months to pay for it. That’s when I got the idea for “Spare Change Blues”, because I couldn’t be like, ‘Here you go, here’s all the money! I’m buying the guitar right now.’ I had to work up to it.” Born and raised in Webster, New York, not far from Rochester, James moved to Nashville with his family not even five years ago. They have always been a musical bunch. His father, former Los Straitjacket and J.D. McPherson drummer Jason Smay, plays with him in his band. And in his younger days, McKinley took a liking to the Hammond organ they had in the house, now manned by trio 3rd member Austin John Doody. He’s a living example of why every guitarist should start with keyboard; because he learned so much about theory and craft, when he finally moved over the foundation was laid for him to far surpass your average guitar hero, playing simple bar chords punctuated with bits of wheedly wee. He got his feet wet in town fairly quickly, playing the Family Wash and Basement regularly in his first few years, where he and his band grew a steady crowd before shutdown in 2020. His unparalleled musical journey has taken him from the cover art of Eric Church’s critically acclaimed ‘Mr. Misunderstood’ to stages across America and Europe, even to Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena where he performed the album’s title track with Church for a sold-out hometown crowd. Already a seasoned road dog who missed his own high school graduation for a gig, things are now heating back up in the wake of the pandemic, as he and his band gear up for the type of touring young men are built for. James is incandescently stoked about the July 23rd release of Still Standing By, and given the music on it, he should be. So where does he see himself a year from now? “On the road, taking this thing even further,” he enthuses. “Everyone’s just so happy, and the band is ready to get out there. We’re just ready to go and ride it out. And I hope people dig the record.” Odds are they will.

https://www.facebook.com/mckinleyjamesmusic
https://www.mckinleyjames.com/

Jarrod Dickenson

Storytelling is something of a Texas tradition. Tall hats and even taller tales are woven into the fabric of The Lone Star State, and singer-songwriter Jarrod Dickenson can spin a yarn with the best of them. Hailing from Waco, now based in Nashville via Brooklyn, Dickenson spends most of his time on the road bringing his own particular brand of soulful Americana to a wide variety of music loving audiences around the globe.

Growing up in Central Texas, Dickenson began playing music relatively late, only picking up a guitar for the first time at the age of 18, but music had always been a constant presence in his upbringing.

“As a kid and especially into my teenage years I was always sifting through my dad’s old record collection,” he recalls. “I’d spend hours listening to people like The Beatles, The Stones, Simon & Garfunkel and Tom Petty. I think it’s safe to say that my love for and early education in music comes from my father. My creative side, however, definitely comes from my mom. She’s always been a very artistic and creative person. As a kid she taught me to draw, and throughout the years she’s been an amateur painter and is now a phenomenal quilter. I have no doubt that she could have made a career as an artist if she’d chosen to go down that path.”

At 20, Dickenson left Waco and moved south to Austin to finish college at the University of Texas. It was there that he began to cut his teeth as a budding musician and songwriter in the Austin music scene. He played virtually every coffee shop, club and bar in Austin for the next four years, during which time he recorded his first album, Ashes On The Ground. Shortly after the release of his first record he decided to give up his apartment in Austin, as well as the financial security of his day job, and hit the road; a decision that would prove to be quite literally life-changing.

“In early 2010 I decided I needed to leave my comfort zone. I loved Austin, but I wasn’t satisfied with simply playing the same gigs week in and week out. I wanted a change. I wanted to be on the road. So, I booked myself something like 26 gigs in 31 days all along the west coast. Now, I’d never even been to California at that point, so I had no logical reason to believe that anyone would actually attend these shows,” Jarrod remembers “but I was young and naive and ready to take on the world. That tour, in a financial sense, was a massive failure! Most of the shows I played were to the sound guy, the bartender and the door person, and every now and then, the odd person who just happened to walk in that night. I drove myself over 4,000 miles, lost a ton of money, and only gained a handful of fans in the process. Any sane person would have thrown up their hands, moved back home and gotten a straight job, but I had the time of my life! While that tour wasn’t a success in the traditional sense, it showed me that I loved being on the road. I loved traveling. I loved singing my songs in different places to anyone who would listen. I learned a lot of lessons about how not to do things on that tour, but I also realized in that moment that there wasn’t a single thing in this world I’d rather be doing.” Since that time, Dickenson has shown no signs of slowing down. In the last ten years he’s played hundreds upon hundreds of shows in over 15 countries.

Jarrod’s musical journey has also led to multiple cross-country moves over the last decade. He first moved from Austin to Nashville, TN, and then had a brief stint in Los Angeles, where he recorded his critically acclaimed second album, The Lonesome Traveler, with producer-engineer Ryan Freeland. That album opened the door for Jarrod to begin touring in Europe; a step that would not only play a significant role in the evolution of his career, but it would also forever change the course of his personal life. 

https://jarroddickenson.com/home

Tickets: $20 and on sale now at https://abilene.showare.com/ and tonight at the door

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