Having released a third full-length album, XY, late last year, the local singer-songwriter who goes simply by Dirt feels “confident” about where he is now — he and his band, Earthy Vibes, are probably the only purveyors of Texas soul music around. Recorded live and not significantly altered by technology, the album is “imperfectly beautiful,” he said. “I wanted to be different … get the spirit and energy in the music.”
Only a highly trained ear might detect the spots where the time lags slightly or when Dirt’s vocals waver from perfect pitch. Most of us might hear just a real group of guys making real music.
Dirt started playing guitar as a child, copying Beatles songs. He eventually studied jazz guitar at the University of North Texas, where he started writing his own music. A fan of musical simplicity, he filtered all of the theory that he was fed at school into an ethos that could be applied to any form of music, including Texas soul. After filling up notebooks with songs and feeling confident in his ability to keep on writing, he recruited several players and launched Earthy Vibes in 2003. The Right Side Of was their first album and also the only one to include a horn section and drum machine. A foursome, Dirt said, “was easier to manage.”
Dirt began concentrating on crafting solid hooks. “If people haven’t heard your music, they won’t pay attention,” he said. If they don’t at least feel as if they know it, “they won’t make a connection.” On 2007’s Messages2Mine, Dirt offers two real keepers, “Sunshine” and “Dream.” Both have solid hooks and stand apart as old-school hits.
One of the ways Dirt encourages listeners to connect with him is by shamelessly offering up stories about his life. Another way that he and his band win over listeners is by simply grooving. (Through an assortment of percussive instruments, China Maze, who doubles as a holistic healer, applies a busy undercurrent to songs that might otherwise be somewhat barebones.)
The cohesiveness may also be due to an easy familiarity. “We get along remarkably well,” Dirt said. Even though he writes and arranges all of the music, he is no egomaniac. Instead, he encourages his bandmates to play “what they want and what they hear.”
When they’re not writing, playing, or recording, Dirt holes up in his Southlake school and studio, Hall Music Productions, teaching and recording. XY was laid down there last summer.
The group is gung-ho about hitting the road. Over the past couple of years, Dirt & Earthy Vibes have done a good job of expanding their fan base into parts of Oklahoma and the rest of Texas. The band is committed to doing music full-time for well-considered reasons. “Music is expression, atmosphere, stress relief, and a distraction from mundane things,” Dirt said. “You become a student of life when you write songs.” l
