By Mark Kneubuhl
Special to LIVE!
June 30, 2007

Most Misunderstood…
South First Band

Lead guitarist Warren Smyrl says his band’s name sometimes earns the quartet unfair scrutiny. “The South First Band” name conjures up visions of flags of the old Confederacy and hyper-redneck attitudes. It doesn’t help, either, that the band members hail from east Texas.

The truth is that the band’s name comes from… well, to be truthful, a rather boring story. It was the location of the group’s first gig. “We weren’t even a band, we just liked playing together,” explained Smyrl. The gig was on South First St. in Lufkin, Texas.

South First’s recent hit single, “Wake Up Wanting Me,” from their new CD, Like the Movies, is equally misunderstood, explained drummer/songwriter, Pat Overstreet. It is about an ex-girlfriend, who was a friend first, then a lover. The love part didn’t work out, and the friendship isn’t there either. It was then that the devastated and dejected drummer thought up the hook line for the song: ‘when you wake up wanting me, I’ll be gone.’

Overstreet said that girls and guys alike have told him the song really speaks to them because they were once in (or wanted out of), an abusive relationship. Aside from all the miscommunication, South First Band are real musicians, playing real music; the guitars are right on and the harmonies really set the band ahead of the pack, getting them into the LIVE-FIVE.

Most Refreshing…
Adam Hood

Some say that country music is all about the ‘three Ls,’ loving, loosing and liquor. Our next LIVE-FIVE honoree is billed as a country band, but the Carter Family they are not. Adam Hood and his trio play a mix of simple but refreshingly original honky-tonk country, blues and rock.

Lead singer, songwriter, guitarist, and the group’s name-sake was born and raised in Opelika, Alabama, which is memorialized in a melody that could be the theme song for hundreds of small towns across America called, “Nobody Comes Here Anymore.” “Slow as a ghost town,” the haunting melody starts out.

Fellow Alabaman, Patrick Lunceforde keeps the band on tempo with just a bass drum and snare. “We like to keep it simple,” he told LIVE.

Keegan Reed from San Antonio, fills the voids of the one-guitar, two-drum band with quick and seamless bass line transitions.

A couple of things put Adam Hood ahead of the pack: First, he simply has a well tuned pair of vocal cords that can change effortlessly from the nasal, hard-core honky-tonk to the more crisp, pop-sound of songs like “Buzzes Like Neon” or the beautiful melody, based on a love gone south, called “Shelly.”

But where the group has earned a spot on the LIVE-FIVE is all in the songs.

“Twenty Two Days Too Long” is a single from their CD, 6th Street, with the group ever-hopeful it gains traction. LIVE is also betting on songs like, “Buzzes Like Neon,” “Nobody Comes Here Anymore,” and “Change Never Comes Easy.”

Most Original…
Primm

They’re called Primm, as in how older club owners used to misspell the name of the band’s founder and lead singer/song writer, Ray Prim (with one ‘M’).

Their music is a provocative blend of rock, R&B and hip-hop, seemingly having evolved from ‘old school’ roots. And although there is the obvious influence on the music from some of their own idols like Lenny Kravitz, King’s X, the Beatles and Stevie Wonder, there is something else in their music that drips with originality.

Listening to this up-and-coming band, the higher quality of musicianship and wordsmithing is immediately evident. But what puts a song on the charts, (although no one can tell you exactly what “it” is), comes after the second or third playing of the tune. It’s when your foot starts tapping involuntarily and sub-consciously your hand reaches for the volume button to crank it up.

“It” is evident in songs like “All In Yo Head” and “Up and Down.”

With a couple more tunes like that and signing a record deal shouldn’t be too far off. In the mean time, they are a group more than worthy of the LIVE-FIVE, with many bands who get stuck into one genre, you never know what to expect from Primm.

Back-up vocalist and sax player Gary Hargle, guitarist Tate Farrar, drummer Jusin Sadowski and bass player John Mcfarlen, make up the rest of the band and play regularly at Austin’s popular night spot, Lucky Lounge.

Most Universal…
Space Cadet

The Dallas-based alternative-rock band, Space Cadet, is a well-packaged group. The have the CDs. They’ve got the chart singles (doing well); they have the carefully posed promo shots, and they have a solid fan-base throughout Texas, which is growing nationally. But most importantly, they’ve got the look. Where alternative rock-and-roll is concerned it’s not all about the music. Sure, when you go to a coffee house where a guy with a Martin guitar is strumming your face with his fingers, you look beyond the nose-ring and the music IS everything. But with live rock, there is much more at play than a couple of Stratocasters and a $2,000 dollar drum set.

These guys have been around a long time, which shows in there polished live shows. But where the veteran status really works to Space Cadet’s advantage is in their CDs. The songs are crafted, well-orchestrated originals that can only be the result of dozens of collective years of playing experience, thus the designation of “Most Universal.”

The group is led by front-man singer/songwriter Ted Levin. Danny Knight is on drums, Matt Morris on bass, with former devoted Space Cadet fan and San Angelo native, Leonard Summer, filling in on guitar.

If you like Alternative R&R, you’ll like Space Cadet and look out for singles, “Unsaid, “Have a Good Life” and “The let Down,” which spent 10 weeks on the play list of KBGE’s “The Edge”, the fifth biggest alternative rock radio station in the nation.

Most Likely…
Randy Rodgers

Southern country rocker Randy Rogers has a lot going for him: Just a Matter of Time, his first album released on the Mercury Nashville label, has been getting airplay on CMT and spurred a nationwide tour. He opened an acoustic tour with fellow singer/songwriter and musician Wade Bowen at Blaine’s at the beginning of June.

Roger’s music walks that fine line between pure modern country and a sound that otherwise might qualify for the pop-charts.

“As far as feeling like we’ve accomplished anything,” said Rogers, “we’ve achieved national coverage to some extent, but no Top 10 hits.” This is where they earn the LIVE-FIVE, “Most Likely.”

We think it could happen.

Rogers is also ‘most likely’ to spend a weekend at Niagara Falls this summer, having set the date to marry his longtime girlfriend on July 28 (expect more songs about that holy sacrament—and its colorful interludes).

Were there adjustments made in signing with Mercury? “Well, we’re getting airplay… that’s a new thing for us… kinda freaks you out. We’re touring all over the country and that’s also a big difference,” said Rogers. But the group insists they haven’t “sold out” to the label by compromising their sound.

Band members Brady Black, Les Lawless, Geoffrey Hill, and Jon Richardson all lived in San Marco, near Mr. Roger’s neighborhood, where they all met in 2000. “That’s how we forged our friendship,” said Rogers.

LIVE-FIVE Superlatives (Totally worthy of at least a mention):

Outstanding guitarist: Zack Huckabee (Band of the same name)
Up and coming song writer: Justin Brown (Color & Light)
Awesome vocals: Andy Bertlesen (Texas Renegade)