2010 in review and 2011 girl power

The year known as 2010 is about to be placed on the shelf with all the other years before it. It was a good year for our little festival event in Mesquite. We topped the 25,000 mark in attendance at the RTF and we expect even greater things in 2011 -- the fifth anniversary event.

It was an eventful and tumultuous year for music. This past year saw the record industry struggle under the transformation of how people buy music. Internet sources and streaming music sources became the present ... not the future, but the here and now.

Limewire was sued and order to shut down -- giving way to Frostwire. Sony is launching a streaming music site. As far as the way music is purchased in 2011, Apple and Itunes will continue to reign supreme. Others will come and others will go. Itunes will still be king when the dust settles.

On the Texas music front, 2010 marked the end of an era. Cross Canadian Ragweed ended a 16-year run as the 800 pound gorilla of the Red Dirt music scene. The 2010 Real. Texas. Festival. was among the final shows the group played.

That being said, as we look forward to 2011, I would submit to you that one of the top groups to watch will be The Departed. It's a super group featuring Cody Canada and Jeremy Plato of CCR, blues roadhouse rocker Seth James and road warrior drummer Dave Bowen of Stoney Larue and Jason Boland fame.

We also see the new year being a year of girl power in the Texas music scene, and perhaps mainstream country for that matter. Texan Miranda Lambert enjoyed a monster year with several awards and well-deserved critical acclaim for what may be her seminal album, "Revolution."

It would seem logical that there will be a number of Texas female artists and groups seeking to capitalize on Lambert's success.

That said, here are a few locally to check out. When you get a chance, to go to one of their shows.

Lantana -- Three moms from north Texas who bring a Dixie Chick-type of harmony and approach to their sets. They've been a fixture at festivals and fairs all over the region ... including the State Fair of Texas.

Sara Jaffe -- One of the most unique styles and voices out there. Think Allison Krause meets Days of the New and you have Sara Jaffe. The song "Clementine" might be one of my favorite singles released in 2010.

Blacktop Gypsy -- A guitar-slinging, mandolin-shredding, fiddle-sawing duo who play, produce, write, arrange all of their music. They are true artists who are not only great players and singers, but technicians.

The Trishas -- It's very rare when four solo artists can be brought together to form a cohesive group. Normally, you have over-singing and upstaging going on as one of the members of the group try to establish him or herself as the dominant performer. Not so with The Trishas -- and I know from personal experience Liz Foster has a huge voice. Still, Liz, Kelley Mickwee, Savannah Welch and Jamie Wilson have it figured out. The result is a soulful, bluegrass almost gospel sound.

The Courtyard Hounds -- Hardly a breakout or new artist like the great female artists mentioned previously, but look for even greater things from this group in 2011. The Courtyard Hounds are comprised of some very familiar faces -- Emily Robison and Martie Maguire of the Dixie Chicks. Their debut album is getting rave reviews.

There are others who should and probably will make an impact on the local and national music scene in 2011, but alas, we've run out of time. Here's to a wonderful and save start to the next decade.

Stop the insanity

What do college football bowl games and entertainment awards shows have in common.

There are way too many of them.

Pretty soon, you'll have to be a pretty sorry entertainer or musician to NOT win an award somewhere.

It's like there are awards shows being created for the sake of awards shows. They are being created so that everyone ... particularly the big name entertainers ... can have some kind of accolade to attach to their resumes.

Case in point. Easton Corbin was nominated for Best New Artist for the CMA or the ACM ... it's hard to remember. It doesn't matter.

He didn't win.

Well, the other night at the American Country Awards he was named the Breakthrough Artist of the Year. Same award, just a different wrapper. It's hard for me to wrap my brain around the concept that Easton Corbin wasn't good enough to win the best new artist for one awards show criteria but was in another.

Carrie Underwood lost out on Entertainer of the Year awards at the Country Music Association awards. She was named Entertainer of the Year at the American Country Awards. Now, some of these are fan-voted awards and some are not.

But, all of the awards seem to carry the same weight.

Remember when the Grammy Awards used to be the be all end all. Man, if you won a Grammy, that was really something.

In some cases, it was enough to say you were Grammy-nominated. It was good just to be nominated for a Grammy. Now, there are artists who are placing their American Music Awards, their American Country Awards, their Country Music Television belt buckles, their MTV video awards, their VH1 awards, their Country Music Association awards, their ESPY awards and all other awards they can secure right alongside the Grammy.

OK ... that was a test. I wanted to see if everyone caught that. The ESPY isn't a music award. It's the waste of television time from ESPN every year when they hand out the sports awards.

I don't know. It would seem a Super Bowl championship, an NBA title, a Stanley Cup, the World Series trophy, a PGA major tournament championship or any other championship for that matter would carry a little more weight that some stupid statue. But I digress.

What happened to prestige? Back in the day, there were four pretty big-time awards shows. The Grammies, the Oscars, the Emmies and the Tonies.

Of course the Tony awards recognize Broadway performances in musicals and whathaveyou. It's the best stuff not very many people have ever heard of.

Now, the Emmy awards have even been fragmented. You have the daytime Emmys that honor talk shows and soap operas.

Oh well. I guess it's just everyone making sure they get theirs.

What are ya gonna do?

Giving thanks

Ah yes ... Thanksgiving.

The Real. Texas. Festival. has plenty to be thankful for. Let's get started.

* The RTF is thankful for visionary City of Mesquite administrators and elected leaders who see this festival not only for what it is, but for what it's becoming. In a day and age when many music festivals are shuttering due to soft ticket sales, the Real. Texas. Festival. steamrolls into its fifth year and is not looking back.

* The RTF is thankful for Time Warner Cable, Hooters, The U.S. Army, Coca Cola, Coors Light, Hampton Inn and Suites, Resistol Arena, Star Community Newspapers, 99.5 The Wolf, The Dallas Observer, Al Dia, Dallas Regional Medical Center, Lee Lewis Construction and all of the other sponsors who help make the festival possible.

* The RTF is thankful for Texas musicians like Stoney Larue, Eli Young Band, Cross Canadian Ragweed, Cory Morrow, Kevin Fowler, Jack Ingram, Jonathan Tyler and Northern Lights, the Old 97s, The Toadies, Bowling for Soup, Wade Bowen, Steve Holy, Billy Joe Shaver, Buggs Henderson, Robert Earl Keen, ZZ Top, Miranda Lambert, The Dixie Chicks, Kelly Clarkson, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jason Boland, Mark McKinney, Reckless Kelly, Micky and the Motorcars, Mike McClure, Charlie Robison, Seth James, Doyle Bramhall II, Damage Plan, Lucinda Williams, Patrica Vonne, Valejo, Little Joe y La Familia and all of the other Texas music folks who make their music their way. They stay true to themselves, true to their state and true to their art.

* We are thankful for the fans of Texas music and the Red Dirt scene. They are the people that make the Real. Texas. Festival. tick.

* We are thankful for Gibson, Fender, Paul Reed Smith, Music Man, Guild, Martin, Breedlove, Taylor, Epiphone, Ibanez and all of the other companies who build guitars.

* We are thankful for Marshall, Fender, Peavy, Ampeg, Crate, Line 6, Mesa Boogie, Orange, Carvin and all of the people who power the sound of Texas music through amplification.

* We are thankful for Taylor Swift who continues to sell records when nobody else seems to be able to. We don't know how she's doing it, but she's doing it.

* We are thankful for Mumford and Sons who went head to head with Wal-mart and won.

* We are thankful for barbecue. Nobody does it better than Texas.

* We are thankful for the Texas Rangers -- the baseball team.

* We are thankful for Justin Bieber, who can make everyone seemingly forget about the Jonas Brothers. Now, if someone else can come along and make us all forget about Justin Bieber.

* We are thankful for Pink. She's not from Texas but she ought to be.

* We are thankful for 99.5 The Wolf. There's nobody better.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Check out the Real. Texas. Festival. April 29 and 30, 2011.

Big night for Texan and RTF alum

Good for Lindale, Texas' own Miranda Lambert.

Lambert was one of the big winners at the Country Music Association awards last evening. She won the awards for Best Female Vocal Performer, Song of the Year, Video of the Year and Album of the Year for "Revolution."

The Song of the Year was "House that Built Me" with its corresponding video winning Video of the Year.

Her fiancee Blake Shelton was also a big winner ... and that makes the Real. Texas. Festival. one of the winners at the CMA's as well. Shelton won the award for Best Male Vocal Performance as well as for Musical Event of the Year ... the duet with Trace Adkins for "Hillbilly Bone."

In fact, host for the evening Brad Paisley -- who had several underrated and funny lines throughout the evening -- was prompted to say "with the night Blake and Miranda are having, we should expect a baby in about nine months." His best line of the night was during his introduction of Dierks Bentley when he told the audience that on his latest album, Dierks returned to his bluegrass roots.

"And of course as everyone knows, bluegrass grows wild and free in Dierks' hometown of Phoenix, Ariz."

Genius.

So, how is the Real. Texas. Festival. a winner at the CMAs? Well, Blake Shelton was the headliner in the inaugural festival in 2007. It gives the festival even more credibility as a top-shelf event because of the magnitude of the entertainers we bring.

That being said, how did we do?

As you may recall ... at least the half dozen to 10 people who read this blog regularly ... we took a stab at predicting the winners in some of the major categories at the CMAs. We didn't predict all of them, but it looks like we did pretty well.

Best New Artist -- Prediction: Zac Brown Band. Winner: Zac Brown Band
As much as it drives me crazy how a band or an artist who's breakout album was three years ago can win Best New Artist, kudos to Zac Brown. It's an outstanding group, but we were pulling for Texan Chris Young.

Vocal Group of the Year -- Prediction: Lady Antebellum. Winner: Lady Antebellum
No real surprise as the luster begins to rub off Rascal Flatts.

Vocal Duo of the Year -- Prediction: Brooks and Dunn. Winner: Sugarland
Not sure how Sugarland wins for vocal duo of the year when Kristian really doesn't sing. Jennifer Nettles does about 98 percent of the singing in that band. I thought for sure with Brooks and Dunn on their farewell tour, they'd be a lock. So, there ya go.

Single of the Year -- Prediction: "Need You Now" from Lady Antebellum. Winner: "Need you Now."
Not a fan of the song or the group, but when you have something that crosses over multiple radio station formats, it's obviously a formula for success.

Song of the Year -- Prediction: "Need You Now." Winner: "House that Built Me" by Miranda Lambert.
I saw this as a bit of an upset. I actually like "White Liar" better from that album.

Video of the Year -- Prediction: "Water" by Brad Paisley. Winner: "House that Built Me" Miranda Lambert
The true greatness behind this video is the less-is-more concept. Just her, an old house, a guitar and a tour bus. Fabulous.

Entertainer of the Year -- Prediction: Brad Paisley. Winner: Brad Paisley.
Until last night, Brad was well on his way to becoming the Susan Lucci of the CMAs in this category. I believe last night was his fifth nomination without a win. And again, he had a very underrated line in his acceptance speech: "My mentor Little Jimmy Dickens used to say, 'If you see a turtle sittin on a fence post, chances are he had help gettin there.' Folks, I had a lot of help getting here."

One final note about the CMAs (pardon the pun) ... Gwyneth Paltrow. Uh, I think she's a very good actress.

Micky and the Motorcars signed

The Real. Texas. Festival. entertainment schedule is starting to take shape. Offers are being made, mulled over and a few have even been accepted.

We've already signed our headliners. We have a couple of publicity embargoes as our headliners have shows booked in the area. We don't want to step on those shows so we'll wait until we've been given the green light to promote our headliners.

That green light will come Jan 1 ... so Jan. 1 at the stroke of midnight, be sure to check the Web site www.realtexasfestival.com for the announcement of the RTF headliners for 2011.

Trust me y'all ... it's big and Texas music fans will certainly not be disappointed. I say this every year, but we could have the largest attendance ever at the festival with the Friday and Saturday night headliners we've signed.

That being said, there are some signed entertainers that we can talk about.

For example, rising Texas music alt-country rockers Micky and the Motorcars have been signed for the festival. Micky and the Motorcars are an Austin-music scene stronghold and have been for a number of years.

I was unaware of the fact that Motorcars frontman Micky Braun is the brother of Reckless Kelly frontman Willy Braun.

Like many of the Texas bands and artists, they are true road warriors. They play some 215 shows per year and are traveling all over the state and nation. That's one of the things that sets Texas bands apart. They can log more miles touring in a year and some national recording acts -- simply by traveling the state.

Think about it ... from Kingsville to Amarillo and from Texarkana to El Paso -- that's a lot of miles.

The festival will also feature two of the hottest Tejano/Latino groups going today. One of them, Los Texmaniacs, won the Grammy for Best Tejano Album in 2010 for "Borders y Bailes."

Grupo Vida will be making a return performance at the festival, having played the event in 2010. The Electric Cowboys, as they are referred to from time to time, certainly entertain with an electric performance. They just might be the most versatile act on the bill.

The festival will also bring back the Battle of the Bands event for high school "garage bands." There are only eight performance slots available, but that doesn't mean more bands won't have the ability compete.

It has been our hope to have enough bands submit audition materials to where we can actually have preliminary rounds. And remember, there are no restrictions on the style of music that can be submitted for the Battle of the Bands.

True, the festival leans toward alt-country, country rock. But the Battle of the Bands event can feature anything or everything -- Rock, Rap, Metal, Grunge, Techno, Alternative, Emo, Thrash, Punk, Ska, Gospel, Hip Hop, Dance, Goth, Electronica ... it just doesn't matter.

The Real. Texas. Festival. prides itself on having one of the most diverse entertainment line ups and concert series out there.

The 2011 edition will be no exception.

Rough year for the concert industry

Man, it's been a difficult year for concert promoters and the like.

There have been any number of shows canceled recently, or plans for future editions of a concert series have been killed. Most of the shows were canceled due to one reason.

Soft ticket sales.

That can happen when promoters and/or venues are paying six figures or even seven figures for their headliners. The ticket price has to go up accordingly.

We've gotten some ridicule the past four years as to why we haven't tried to sign George Strait as the headliner for the Real. Texas. Festival. After all, he is certainly in the conversation for being the most famous Texas recording artist out there.

And, we could book George Strait. It only takes money ... high six figures if not seven figures. If we book George Strait, the $15 ticket price goes out the door. It would have be to be triple that ... if not more to attend the festival.

Also, say good-bye free general admission or shuttle lot parking, kids 12-and-under- free, complimentary rodeo admission -- and we'd probably have to find some other things that we could charge admission or user fees.

We'd prefer to properly manage our entertainment cost to keep the ticket price affordable and all-inclusive.

R&B megastar Rhiannon canceled a few shows this summer because of soft ticket sales. The economy isn't quite there yet. And, by and large, I think fans just simply don't want to pay $200 and $300 per ticket to see their favorite artists.

I don't know ... maybe it's Ke$ha. Ke$ha was on the bill with Rhianon for some of those canceled shows. She was also supposed to perform in the South Side Seaport concert series in New York. It was canceled as well.

Note to artists ... avoid performing dates with Ke$ha.

In fairness to Ke$ha, the Seaport concert series was canceled due to mistaken expectations. It was thought 6,000 or so would show up for the free Drake concert. However, 25,000 attended and the security wasn't able to adequately manage crowd control. So, the organizers of the series simply pulled the plug on it ... it was a free concert series so they weren't making money. Plus, they had to deal with the public relations black eye.

Soft ticket sales also doomed Hullabalou at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kent. The first year show was decimated by the heat and the fact they just couldn't sell enough of the $300-plus tickets. The promoters lost $5 million on the shows, twice as much as they planned on losing in the first year.

Promoters have already said there won't be a second Hullabalou ... at least not next year. It was the perfect storm of a huge entertainment nut to cover, weather and economic conditions.

I dare say Hullabalou had close to $5 million tied up in three artists -- Kenny Chesney, Dave Matthews Band and Bon Jovi. The event also featured Zac Brown Band, The Doobie Brothers, Sara Evans, Jason Aldean, Steve Miller Band and the Black Crowes.

Even though soft ticket sales has been the culprit for many concert cancellations, there have been other reasons.

We already mentioned the crowd control issues for South Street Seaport. In 2009, Fort Worth's May Fest was canceled because of what was perceived as a huge health scare -- the Swine Flu "epidemic."

The Glastonberry Music Festival in England will be canceled for 2012 ... two years away. Soft ticket sales aren't to blame for this one. After all, how can someone predict how many ticket are or are not going to be sold two years from now?

No, a portable toilet shortage is cited as the reason the festival will be canceled. The Olympic games come to London in 2012 and all available portable toilets will be deployed for that spectacle.

That just stinks for Glastonberry. Ooops ... sorry. Bad pun.

Rockers sit at the top of tour list

Pollstar -- the concert hotwire of the music industry -- recently announced the top grossing concert tours of the third quarter of the year.

And, although I wish it could be so, no artist appearing on the top 100 list will be appearing at the Real. Texas. Festival.

However, the top grossing tours of the third quarter of the year all have one thing in common -- a ticket price four, five and in some cases 10 times higher than the Real. Texas. Festival.

At any rate, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at the top 100 concerts. First of all, this isn't necessarily the top 100 money makers ... some of these shows might have actually made more money, but their ticket price was appreciably higher.

These are the top 100 concert tours in terms of tickets sold.

And positions one and two on the list are held by rock acts.

The number one concert tour in terms of tickets sold was AC/DC -- who have sold 1.8 million tickets worldwide. In second, Bon Jovi with 1.3 million. Dave Matthews Band was fourth on the list with slightly more than 1 million tickets sold.

The top country act on the list was Tim McGraw with 838,939. He was number six.

Since the Real. Texas. Festival. celebrates Texas music, let's see how Texans fared on the list.

The highest ranking Texan act was Brooks and Dunn featuring Coleman, Texas' own Ronnie Dunn. The duo ranked 13th with 622,122 tickets sold -- perhaps bolstered in large part by their on-going Last Rodeo tour.

Other Texas acts on the list include:

The Eagles at 23 -- 443,164. Sure, they are generally classified as a California band, but you can run into Don Henley from time to time across the D-FW Metroplex as he lives in our part of the world.

The tour featuring George Strait, LeeAnn Womack (both Texans) and Reba came in a 30 with 350,925 tickets.

Houston's own Beyonce ranked 63rd on the top 100 top concert tours with 168,157 tickets sold to date.

Nora Jones was 79th at 134,411.

Believe it or not, Willie Nelson is still packing them in. Willie's tour was 94th on the list with 105,890 tickets sold.

Ever heard of Further? This band was 54th on the list at 196,350 -- further proving (pardon the pun) that an artist really doesn't need a lot of radio play to sell tickets on a tour. Further is a spin-off band of The Grateful Dead featuring Phil Lesh and Bob Weir.

Perhaps the most surprising entry on the list ... at least from my perspective ... was Scandinavian pop act A-ha. The one-hit wonders of "Take on Me" fame came in at 90th on the list with 107,403 tickets sold through the third quarter of the year.