Maybe we should start a campaign to get hip Fort Worth musicians who’ve relocated to Austin to come back. Just ’cause. First one to wrangle is alt-country singer-songwriter and Paste magazine darling Collin Herring, whose new album, Ocho, is almost done and includes contributions from co-producers Will Johnson (Centro-matic, South San Gabriel) and Brit Beisenherz. The album, Herring’s fourth, is scheduled for a fall release. Second on the list: Andrew Kenny, who rose to prominence with American Analog Set and is now fronting Pitchfork-approved, giddily twee Americana purveyors Wooden Bird. (See: new vid below.) Third: Marcus Lawyer.
Who’s with me? No one? OK. Screw you very much.
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I agree! Keep the good shit here!
No, I’m totally with you — one main reason I moved here in the late 1990s was that Fort Worth looked poised to be the next Austin (which was tending toward big business-chainyness at the time). Yet we’ve never quite nailed it, except in our glorious & diverse indie-restaurant scene. What can we do to keep artists & musicians & filmmakers etc here, and attract more? Is it as simple as “Be more supportive”?
More people need to go to more shows.
Well, being the Republican state center doesn’t help. Not enough cultural headlines being generated. Beat up a few more queers. Got to keep people talking about how hip FW is.
Look. There always was and always will be just one Austin, for better or worse. What Fort Worth lacks is a strong music production infrastructure. Every other “music” city — Austin, Nashville, Seattle — has a critical mass of local recording studios manned by reputable producers/musicians. Fort Worth has a couple of studios (Eagle Audio, Fort Worth Sound) but no go-to studio, no place manned by a young, hip producer/musician with a national profile. The closest we have is Will Hunt, who produced Amy Lee from Evanescence’s most recent album. But he’s taken his mixing board to New York City, doing local stuff only on a case-by-case basis. Fusion Records is cool, too, but not the kind of studio to which some up-and-coming Austin artist would get in his car and drive to record.
Not Fusion Records. Fusion Project Studios. Sorry.
Keep your eye on Greg White at Sounds Great Studios. He’s producing and engineering some sick albums at his studio in west Fort Worth.