I (Kim – the Editor) am a HUGE music junkie, HUGE. I listen to a little bit of everything, but mostly independent country or as most people call it Texas/Red Dirt Country. Don’t get me wrong Rhianna and Maroon 5 are on my iPod as well, but for the most part I stick to my roots. I also work with a lot of bands with my photography, so I see a substantial amount of live music. Every year for the past 24 years Larry Joe Taylor has held his Texas Music Festival around Stephenville, Texas, for a while it was in Meridian, but then got too big and was moved to just north of Stephenville. It is pretty much all Texas/Red Dirt Country, however this year the band that stole the show is no where near country. There really isn’t even a genre mold that they would fit in. My friends and I just call it the ‘Josh Weathers Genre”. He’s that good, they are that good. Amy Moorhouse is an even bigger fan of his than I am! She LOVES his music and no matter how long a day she has had, will stick it out until the end if he is playing. That is true dedication and he has earned it.
I was really excited when I saw that Josh and his Endeavors were booked for Friday on the acoustic stage. You see I don’t do the whole week of Larry Joe Taylor. I can’t hang, I go for Friday and sometimes Saturday and go for some of my clients to get some live performance pictures for their promo uses. So needless to say I was thrilled, he was set to play right after The Damn Quails. Now I am sure a lot of people saw this and thought poor Josh, playing after the one of the most talked about new Red Dirt Bands. I didn’t. I knew. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Quails, they are clients and very good friends of mine, but I know what kind of show Josh Weathers puts on and there is just no competition out there that can beat him. NO ONE! He is one of the most talented singers/musicians/entertainers in the world. I am not exaggerating, he is that good. The only thing that I hate about that, is that we (Texas, Fort Worth in particular) are bound to lose him to a national audience and soon. All those people who thought poor Josh, are now thinking poor Quails. (The Quails put on an amazing performance, they always do)
He is rockabilly soul made over into his own world of music. His album is on repeat on my iPod often, it is always a pick me up. His stage presence is phenomenal and filled with so much energy it’s tangible. Watching the crowd at LJT was almost as much fun as watching him. The acoustic stage is always a little more of a subdued – lawn chair sitting – enjoying the music type of crowd. So tell me why he got THREE standing ovations? Like I said he is that good. People were rocking in the seats, tapping their feet, waving their arms in the air, just having a good time. That is until he played all alone on stage by himself. This is a performance I hope I never get used to. Josh Weathers has been covering ‘I Will Always Love You’, originally by Dolly Parton and later sang by the late Whitney Houston, for a while now. I would hazard a guess and say it’s his most requested song. I know you think nobody does this song like Whitney, I hear you, but you are wrong. No disrespect to her at all, she did an amazing job with this song, but Josh does it better. Maybe its because he is a guy and it is so unexpected or maybe its just because he does it better. I don’t know, but I have the video to prove it! Brad Beheler from GalleyWinter.com took this video at LJT (you can read his re-cap of the festival here), now the camera moves around a lot, but you don’t need to see, you just need to hear.
What did I tell you? AMAZING! You can’t see it in this video, but as well as the standing ovation, you could look around and watch people lifting up their arms and looking at their goose bumps. SO SO COOL!
Check Josh Weathers & The True Endeavors out here and make sure and buy their album, you can thank me later!!
