By Joe Hyde
Publisher
June 15, 2007

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. You know the gig: Three chords mixed with some David Alan Coe angst. It doesn’t help, either, that the band members hail from east Texas. The Confederate States of America were far from their minds when the name was cast, though.

“We weren’t even a band, we just liked to play together. Then a Nacogdoches radio station, KJCS 103 FM held a ‘Battle of the Bands’ contest,” explained Smyrl. The guys gathered together in a building located on S. First St. in Lufkin and began practicing to enter the contest. Hence, together they announced their presence to the world by naming themselves after the street on which they practiced. “It’s the main street that runs through Lufkin [Texas],” explained Smyrl.

Since the contest, the quartet has remained together, traveling the Texas country music circuit. One thing led to another until South First scored a hit on the music charts. “Wake Up Wanting Me” from their new CD Like the Movies is climbing the charts. Drummer Pat Overstreet wrote the love song. The song has incredible meaning to Pat. It is about an ex-girlfriend, who, if you read the lyrics between the lines, was a friend first, then a lover. The love portion of the relationship didn’t work out, and the friendship isn’t there, either. “We were having a great time, then out of the blue, she tells me ‘Hey! Let’s be friends,” Overstreet explained. Of course, devastated, Overstreet thought up the hook line for the song, ‘when you wake up wanting me, I’ll be gone.’

“People have told me that it means something else to them,” Overstreet explained. He said that girls and guys alike have told him it really speaks to them because they were once in (or want out of) an abusive relationship.

Smyrl said the band is gaining traction because of their vocal harmonies on all of their original songs. “When we walk into a radio station, we don’t just send one member of the band with an acoustic guitar. All of us go in there because we all can sing, and the harmony is powerful,” he said.

South First is unique in their pursuit of cover songs throughout their performance. They play the Black Crows, Credence Clearwater Revival, and if you asked them, they’d probably play Pink Floyd too. “We put a lot of thought into our selection of cover songs,” Smyrl said. “We play stuff we enjoy and there is a lot of artistic input into what we select to play,” he said.

South First are real musicians playing real music and they are in contention for the LIVE! Top 5 Bands for the June issue. The guitars are right on and the harmonies really set the band ahead of the pack. Listen for them to rise on the charts.

Smyrl spoke for the band when he noted that in San Angelo, and at Blaine’s Pub, the audience cares you are up there performing. “This is a classy bar and the people really care about the music here,” he said.