Not many acts on MySpace list as their influences Merle Haggard and Fleetwood Mac. Or George Jones and Sheryl Crow. But Dallas outfit Blacktop Gypsy does, and it doesn't take many listens to their music to get the connections. Certainly the template is country but with three women in the mix there's lots of room to paint outside the lines of traditional country. And while there's no testosterone, that doesn't mean there's no muscle.
Two fine bands who don't come through much are playing just blocks apart tonight.
Dallas's Blacktop Gypsy will be knocking the audience out with their amazing harmonies and the virtuosity of fiddler Heather Stalling (wife of Max Stalling) and former Lake Jackson resident Rodney Pyeatt.
Stalling was raised in a family of string players and has been doing fiddle contests since she was four years old. She's played with Ed Burleson, Mark David Manders, and others in the Texas music scene. Pyeatt wa
In the third in our continuing series on the music of the five states of Texas, we examine the fictional state of New Texas, comprising Austin and the Hill Country. See Part 1 here and Part 2 here.
New Texas
Capital: Austin
Patron Saint: Willie Nelson
Lesser Icons: Roky Erickson/Thirteenth Floor Elevators, Stevie Ray and Jimmie Vaughan, Fabulous Thunderbirds, Alejandro Escovedo, Jon Dee Graham, True Believers, Freddy Fender, Nanci Griffith, Marcia Ball, Big Boys/Randall "Biscuit" Turner, Fas
