UPDATE Fort Worth Bands Shine on Chevy Series on Kimmel

Quaker City Night Hawks, The Hanna Barbarians, Holy Moly, Tejas Brothers, and KatsuK bassist D. Anson Brody will represent the Fort in the North Texas Chevy Music Showcase, a mini-documentary that will air every Wednesday and Thursday on WFAA-TV/Channel 8 during Jimmy Kimmel Live! starting Wednesday, Oct. 3, and going through December. The rest of the 12 showcased bands are from Dallas and Denton and include some gems, namely Eleven Hundred Springs, Seryn, and The O’s.

Each two-minute episode features a single band onstage and in conversation with hosts, always members of another showcased band. ChevyMusicShowcase.com, where the entire movie will be available for viewing 24/7, also will offer a full-length performance video and free song download from each band.

The series also has featured bands in Kansas City, St. Louis, and Oklahoma City.

Participating North Texas venues include The Aardvark, City Tavern, Dan’s Silverleaf, Hailey’s, Lola’s Saloon, and Poor David’s Pub. Lola’s hosted the Barbs and Eleven Hundred, City Tavern did Quaker City and Madison King, The Aardvark Holy Moly and The O’s, Hailey’s Tejas Brothers and The Effinays, and Poor David’s Pub hosted Brody and blacktopGYPSY.

The bands are chosen by a small team that includes showcase executive producer Dot Rhyne, director/producer Tommy Smeltzer, and program manager Cam Mullikin. Not being from here, they study bands via “websites, social channels, publications, et cetera,” Rhyne said. The team also solicits input from showcase artists in other markets, friends and industry folk, and venue owners.

Quaker City Night Hawks drummer Matt Mabe said that he and his bandmates were contacted one day recently out of the blue. “Guess it was word of mouth,” he said.

The team, after vetting bands for legitimacy’s sake, compiles a “dream team,” Rhyne said.

“As we begin talking to artists, they start recommending others, and the target list takes on a life of its own,” she said.

The team got 99 percent of its North Texas wish-list. The only holdout? Denton singer-songwriter Sarah Jaffe, who was on the road.

UPDATE

To the observation that all of the bands are rock/country-based (and white), Rhyne said that she and her team hope to “cover all genres and sounds before all is said and done.” Getting more involved in local scenes is the primary way by which she and her teammates hope to “cast a broader net,” assuming there are subsequent seasons. “We look forward to keeping our eyes and ears open for our next lineup,” she said. “It will help once people see the actual product for themselves and understand better who we are and what we do.”

The series will run for 52 weeks, she said, through September 2013. Twenty-six “unique episodes” will be aired (two per band plus two “topical episodes”), and all content will be repeated for a 26-week period. “At some point during the year, we also will air a commercial-free 30-minute show,” she said.