Posts published in “News Index – Entertainment”

Casey Donahew Band plays Thurs., June 9 after Bradley Gaskin starts the music after real P.R.C.A. Rodeo Action. Josh Abbott Band plays after George Strait’s Band, Ace In The Hole Band leads off for Friday, June 10. Cory Morrow wraps up the Rodeo June 11 after Brandon Rhyder and the PRCA Rodeo action.

CROSBY – The Crosby Rodeo hosts their Annual Spring Dance on April 11, after Good Friday and before Resurrection or Easter Sunday known as No-Name Saturday.

Get all bright eyed and cotton tailed and hop over to the American Legion Hall in Crosby, just South of the Fairgrounds from 9:00 p.m. until 1:00 a.m.

Jody Nix and the Texas Cowboys will play Western Swing Dance music, a style developed in the 40’s and 50’s by Bob Wills and Hoyle Nix. Jody Nix began his profession career playing with his dad’s band, West Texas Cowboys, 5 nights a week from the time he was eight years of age. Among those in his band are Johnny Cox, “one of the best steel players in the world.” says numerous C&W Magazines.

Nix and The Texas Cowboys were tapped by the Texas State Society Black Tie & Boots Ball for then President George Bush.

David Glenn opens for Kevin Fowler Thursday, June 11. The self described Texas-Nashville Style singer song writer is an avid outdoorsman that likes golf, hunting, fishing and dirt track racing. He likes a range “from George Jones to Lenny Kravitz and lots of people in between.”

Highlands Rotary Club recently listened to an update from Crosby author Charles Shafer about his book “The View from the Chinaberry Tree”, which has now been issued as a 4 volume CD set, with the author reading passages from the book.

The book is about his experiences, and in a larger sense all of our experiences, growing up in the small Texas town of Winfield, with a population of 251. The book was first published in 1996, and the CD set in 2008.

Titles give you a sense of this collection of short stories. These include: A Pocketful of Spinach; Hoboes and Gypsies; I Could Have Been a Cowboy; Khaki; Aubrey and the North Koreans; Sittin Nekkid in the Backyard; Television comes to Winfield; Mama’s Gonna Kill Us Both.

Shafer tells these stories as if from a small boy’s perspective, with a sense of wisdom, and a sense of whimsey.

Shafer is a retired English professor, who taught at Lee College for 37 years, and was active in the Convict Education program.

The book is out of print, but the CD set is available by contacting the author, at 281-462-0410 or email candjshafer@verizon.net.

CROSBY – Internationally acclaimed songwriters and original Country/Rock duo smash hit Howard and David Bellamy, a.k.a. Bellamy Brothers play here Saturday, June 13 with local favorite Gene Watson at the Crosby Fair & Rodeo.

“If I said you had a beautiful body (Would you hold it against me,)” “Spider & Snakes,” “Let Your Love Flow,” “For All the Wrong Reasons,” “Redneck Girl” and “Old Hippie” continue to garner radio time since they were introduced in the 1970’s and 1980’s and became instant top of the chart favorites.

David Bellamy stated once, “Our live draw is bigger than it was in the ‘80’s. I think the same people that grew up with us and our music in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s obviously have raised a whole new generation of Bellamy fans who started toddling to our music.”

The brothers now reside on a 150 acre ranch in Darby, Florida, North of Tampa. They raise purebred charlois cattle and Quarter horses.

Their first gig was in 1968 at the Rattlesnake Roundup in San Antonio, Florida. They developed playing for groups like Percy Sledge and Eddie Floyd as well as Little Anthony & the Imperials.

They were opening acts for Bob Dylan, James Taylor, Van Morrison, Poco and the Byrds during the L.A. heyday. When “Let Your Love Shine” broke out in 1976 it sold over 3 million units worldwide.

The bothers have branched into a corroborative with about thirty other artists including Alan Jackson, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Tanya Tucker and Montgomery Gentry.

The Bellamy Brothers released a gospel album entitled “Jesus Is Coming” that features new songs written by them. The new combination looks into the Post-modern condition against the faith. One song, “Grandma’s God” seems to be the personal story of a spiritual quest from the smoky haze of the ‘60’s and ‘70’s coming back around to the “Old Time Religion.”

Obviously, humor is a great asset for the Bellamy Brothers’ songwriting, on the new album is a song entitled “Lord Help Me Be the Kind of Person My Dog Thinks I Am.” Another song is entitled “Drug Problem” and speaks of how he was drug to church on Sunday morning and drug to work on his grandfather’s farm. “It kids today had that kind of drug problem I believe the world would be a better place.” said David Bellamy. Another insightful tune is “Spiritually Bankrupt,” with many a reference like Dante walking through Hell, a vagabond walks through a dark valley and finds his hopelessness overcome by calling on God.

The next entertainment event by the Crosby Fair & Rodeo is to be on Saturday, April 11 at the American Legion Hall from 9:00 p.m. until 1:00 a.m. It is a major fund-raiser for the year and will feature a silent and live auction. Entertainment will be Jody Nix and the Texas Cowboys, from the Bandera Area, a large band featuring many songs similar to Jake Hooker.

“Live Free or Die Hard”
Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13

It’s safe to say that this is the last time Bruce Willis will be playing Detective John McClane, and you can tell that Willis wanted his iconic character to go out with a bang. And another bang. And …
That’s what makes “Live Free or Die Hard” the best action movie of the year. It is wall-to-wall stunts, gunfights and Stuff Blowin’ Up Real Good.
And the icing on the cake is that you can tell Willis is having the time of his life and not just phoning it in for a huge payday. Bruce’s enthusiasm for the character is infectious. And for all the online bluster about how a PG-13 rating was going to spoil the film, I can tell you honestly that it doesn’t. “Live Free or Die Hard” is a solid action movie — and yes, McClane DOES deliver his signature “Yippy Kai Yay” line.
The plot — as if it matters — surrounds an attack on the nation’s computer infrastructure, from power grids to national security systems, financial institutions, even traffic lights.
A really evil guy who is too pretty to be a nerd (Timothy Olyphant) is wreaking havoc on the country.
Det. John McClane has, in tow, a young hacker (Justin Long) who inadvertently helped develop part of the insidious code.
As the country crumbles down around them, McClane and the hacker have to try to stay one step ahead of the bad guys who can track them and then send helicopters, fighter jets and other nasty stuff their way.
One of the highlights of the film is a cameo by filmmaker Kevin Smith, who plays an uberhacker with the handle, “Warlock.” It was great to see Smith in the role, but it also made it glaringly obvious how weak Justin Long’s characterization was. It would’ve been better to have Silent Bob himself hang with McClane and whomp some cyber-terrorist booty.
Yippy-Kai-Yay, indeed.
GRADE: A

“Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End”
Running time: 168 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13
The third (and hopefully final) installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean series suffers from the misapprehension that “more is better.”
Sometimes it isn’t. And in the case of “At World’s End,” more is too much: Too much plot, too much exposition, too much Keira Knightly and Orlando Bloom (Zzzzzzz), and at nearly three hours in length, too much movie.
What “Pirates” doesn’t have enough of is Jack Sparrow. Let’s be real here: Johnny Depp carried the first movie. It was his portrayal of the swishy, swashbuckling savant Jack Sparrow that made the first movie the hit that it was. It wasn’t the love story. It wasn’t the special effects. It was Depp. Depp. Depp. … Period.

In this film, there aren’t enough scenes of Depp doing what he does best, chewing up the scenery as the scheming, bumbling cad we adored from the first film.
Instead, we get a convoluted plot concerning the alliance between the East India Company and Davy Jones and the search for nine pieces of eight (yes, you read that right) and a pirate congress and plots within plots and people sitting around yelling “Arrrr!” and talking about what they’re supposed to be doing — instead of just DOING IT.
But no. For a three-hour pirate movie, it’s a crime that we have to wait nearly two hours before we see a monkey get shoved into a cannon. A pirate movie should have PIRATE STUFF in it. Not a bunch of talking. And certainly no boring love story — especially when the two people in love are portrayed by two of the most dull, emotionless actors on the planet.
Keira Knightly, who’s looking more and more like an anorexic catfish every day, thinks that projecting emotion is simply a matter of sucking in one’s cheeks. The more she sucks, the more emotion she’s supposedly emoting.
Orlando Bloom reads every line as if he’d just had a chemical lobotomy performed. Needless to say, SuckFace & Durrrrrr pretty much ruined most of the movie for me.
I can’t recommend “At World’s End.” It had the potential to be a Great White Shark, but instead, it’s just a blowfish.

GRADE: D

By LEWIS SPEARMAN
This year’s Crosby Fair and Rodeo continues this week with three exiting night of Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association (PRCA)- sanctioned events along with concerts by six of the most electrifying performers in country music today.
This year’s lineup includes: Thursday, June 7 – Stoney LaRue and Wade Bowen,
Friday, June 8 – Jason Boland and Aaron Watson,
Saturday, June 9 – Charlie Robison and Blaine Larsen.

THURSDAY

Wade Bowen will open the Thursday night Rodeo concert on June 7. Bowen attracted large audiences with “God Bless This Town.” It was number 4, then Live In New Braunfels won the 2004 Bluelight Live Album of the Year.
Bowen, who sings lead vocals and plays acoustic guitar, is backed up by Matt Miller and Gary Wooten on electric guitar. Brooks Robinson on drums and Casey Twist. The band is currently in the middle of their Hold My Beer and Watch This Tour. This tour takes them across Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma, During the tour they will be part of a seven-day cruise concert with Crosby Fair and Rodeo alumnus Cross Canadian Ragweed.
This intensive touring schedule fits perfectly for an artist known for his ability to cross musical genres.
With musical influences that cite everyone from Aerosmith to Patty Griffin to Led Zeppelin and Paul Thorn, the result of Wade Bowen’s incessant touring is something akin to a smooth shot of roots rock with an alt-country back, served on ice with doses of traditional country and sensitive blues, but with a fiery edge, too.
A blend made all its own while not overwhelming the music pallet; Bowen is passionate about being a genre-crossing artist, learning from a variety of musical styles.
Stoney LaRue, 28, of Taft, Texas, with a whole lot of John Anderson like traits, is playing about 300 shows a year nationwide and in the Caribbean.
With a newly assembled band that includes Jeremy Bryant (drums), Jesse Fritz (bass), Rodney Pyeatt (guitar), and Steve Littleton (keys), Stoney LaRue is poised for hectic touring schedule to support their latest release “The Red Dirt Album.” In the week following Crosby, LaRue will find himself playing in Arkansas, Kentucky and Oklahoma before coming back to Texas for a performance in Bryan.

The recent recipient of the Gruene With Envy 2007 Artist of the Year award, LaRue counts an influence a wide variety of singers from Anderson to Willie Nelson, Ray Charles, The Grateful Dead and Kris Kristofferson.
Armed with golden ear musicianship, an amusing wit, and soulful magnetism, LaRue’s shows are infused with an uplifting quality, a cathartic barroom brand of spirituality, where venues are complimented for good bar “feng shui,” and where time and dimension can be traversed via emotive lyrics and melodic riffs.
A charismatic performer, LaRue’s flawless vocals can draw a crowd to a open mouth level of sonic mesmerization, and next have them singing “Forever Young” so loudly that you can’t hear anything else.

FRIDAY

Friday night’s concert begins with Aaron Watson. Off the Record played top five in Texas in 2003. Capping that with “Reckless” playing top 5 of the Texas Music Chart for two months. The Amarillo native is now touring about 200 shows a year and has come to be called the Honky Tonk Kid.
Watson is now touring in support of his newest release San Angelo, which debuted at #60 on the Billboard chart and is up to #5 on the Texas Music Chart.
“Aaron Watson looks too young and cheerful to know much about the honky tonk life, but one spin of San Angelo proves appearances can be deceiving.
Watson manages to find a comfortable middle ground between the radio-friendly polish of new country and the tougher sounds that continue to find favor in his home state of Texas, and while the party anthem “Heyday Tonight” may open the album, it’s harder-edged tunes about love and heartbreak like “Blame It on Me,” “Haunted House,” and the title cut that put the meat on this disc’s bones,” wrote reviewer Mark Deming for the All Music Guide.
Jason Bowland and the Stragglers, 32, closes the Rodeo Friday, June 8.
Boland, backed by his band of stellar musicians: Roger Ray (pedal steel, lead/rhythm guitar), Brad Rice (drums/backing vocals), Grant Tracy (bass), and Noah Jeffries (banjo, mandolin, and guitar) have sold over 100,000 records since 1999.
The Bourbon Legend is Boland’s first record with Sustain Records, an independent Texas-based record company distributed by Universal Music & Video Distribution. The first single, “No One Left To Blame,” carries with it heavy overtones of a music reminiscent of Waylon Jennings and Hank Williams Jr. while providing an edgy musical dose of a new generations’ varied influences. The majority of the songs on the record were influenced by acts such as the Marshall Tucker Band, Johnny Paycheck, Merle Haggard, among others.
“Up and Gone” recently hit number one on the Texas Music Chart.

SATURDAY

Recently, Charlie Robison released Magnolia and voiced a depth of emotions from deep in the psyche. But there is the fun stuff too, on Love Means Never Having to Say You’re Hungry, one has to entertain the double entendre.
Born in Houston, Robison was raised in Bandera. A musician at heart, Robison even found his wife in the music industry. In 1999 he married Dixie Chick Emily Erwin.
Before Going solo, Robison was in the bands Chaparall, Millionaire Playboys, and Two Hoots and a Holler. At one point, Robison was on Warner Brothers, but apparently did not see eye to eye about his musical career there and left to release some albums on his own. Among his releases was a live disc also featuring brother Bruce and Jack Ingram that was put out by Sony’s Lucky Dog label. He then went to Dualtone Records.
Robison was a judge on the first season of the TV singing competition Nashville Star.
Blaine Larsen, 20, grew up in a broken home only later in life to experience the joys of family when his mother remarried. The fresh faced kid features an adult voice, distinctive writing and musical accomplishment.
At age 13, inspired by George Strait’s music, Larsen bought a guitar with money earned from selling homemade birdhouses.
By his freshman year in high school, he was singing in assemblies and at school shows. His geometry teacher taught him chords and wrote a song with him, “Keep It Country.” Larsen also booked gigs in Buckley at sporting events, weddings and in civic clubs.
However, one of Larsen’s classmates got in touch with her distant relative, Rory Lee Feek, a successful songwriter in Nashville. She encouraged him to listen to Larsen’s music. Feek had never even met Larsen’s classmate, but he dropped by the studio to say hello. After returning from Washington, Larsen sent him a finished CD.
After hearing it, Feek and songwriter Tim Johnson flew the 15-year-old singer back to Nashville for a legitimate recording session. They started a label and released a single titled “In My High School,” which received some airplay in Seattle.
An employee of BMG in Seattle sent a note to Joe Galante, head of the BMG labels in Nashville, suggesting that he check out Larsen’s Web site. Galante quickly auditioned him and signed him. At the end of 2004, the label released the single How Do You Get That Lonely, about teenage suicide. His major label debut, Off to Join the World, followed in early 2005. A year later, he issued Rockin’ You Tonight and went on tour with Gretchen Wilson.
The Crosby Fair & Rodeo Board seems to bring in better acts each year, and seeing them here has proven to be a value because the performers have a tendency to go big after playing here.