My wife Angelina and I took a drive down to Gun Barrel City (by the way, greatest name for a Texas town) this past weekend to catch Giovannie & The Hired Guns and the Josh Abbott Band at a one-day festival called July Fest.  It was so great to FINALLY get to see some live music in a festival setting.  Kudos to Brad Weiss of B-Weiss Entertainment for putting on such a great event every year.

Giovannie & The Hired Guns were on fire that night.  The band had the crowd singing word for word to their songs and really put on a fantastic show.  You really haven’t lived until you’ve seen them do their rockin’ version of La Bamba!  Great set from a really fast rising Texas band.

Then, the Josh Abbott band got on stage and played one of their best sets I’ve ever seen.  You could tell the band is really having a great time being back in front of crowds and it was so much fun to witness all their joy and energy.  Was also great to just catch up with Josh before the show, he’s such a good guy and ambassador of this music scene.

With that being said, it makes me really ready for the Larry Joe Taylor Texas Music Festival next month at Melody Mountain Ranch in Stephenville, TX.  For a lot of us hardcore Texas music fans, missing the festival last year was extremely tough to deal with.  An April without LJT is like an Texas summer without the heat, it just doesn’t feel right.

I can’t wait.  We were looking at the festival lineup yesterday and it makes the waiting even tougher.  Such a diverse lineup of all facets of this music scene with the Country, Rock, Singer-Songwriter & Americana bands and artists.  If I had to choose, I think Wednesday is going to be my favorite day of the festival.  They have William Clark Green, Flatland Cavalry, Six Market Boulevard, Jarrod Morris, Kylie Frey, Kody West, Courtney Patton, Jack Ingram, Troy Cartwright and Jordan Nix….just unbelievable.   That’s just one day.  It’s a SIX DAY Festival!

Anyways, hopefully I see you at the festival this year.  I’ll be the one yelling band names on the big stage.  Till then, prepare your livers.

Shayne Hollinger