From The Dallas Morning News...... RYAN BINGHAM!!!


The next big names in Texas music

POP MUSIC: Our critics tell you which Texas acts deserve success in 2008

06:05 PM CST on Sunday, January 6, 2008

This time of year, plenty of music publications like to tell readers which up-and-coming acts will become big in the coming months. Is that interesting? Sure, if you like to dive headfirst into the murky pools of hype that still churn outside many recording labels' headquarters.

Instead, music critics Thor Christensen, Mike Daniel and Mario Tarradell would like to inform you about some Texas music acts that actually deserve success. "The big time" isn't necessarily inevitable for these nine notable artists. But in our judgment, it should be.


Ryan Bingham

Ryan Bingham is much too young to sound so convincingly world-worn. At 25, the lanky, bearded singer-songwriter from West Texas sports a scraggly, weathered voice and a penchant for setting emotionally hardened lyrics to rough-hewn folk, country, rock and even a little mariachi. Mescalito, Mr. Bingham's 2007 debut for Nashville's Lost Highway Records, tells tales about traveling musicians, rodeo riders, minimum-wage earners and border towns, to name a few. While he fell into a music career by accident – he serendipitously became a regular performer at a Stephenville, Texas, bar – the man who's been praised by Lone Star music stalwarts Terry Allen and Joe Ely did self-release 2005's Wishbone Saloon on basically no budget.

Mario Tarradell


Fishboy

In the '80s, rock was crawling with sardonic nerds like They Might Be Giants, the Dead Milkmen and Camper Van Beethoven. Today, the style lives again in the form of Fishboy.

The Denton-based quartet, led by gleeful, nasal-voiced singer Eric "Fishboy" Michener, has been kicking around since 2000. But it recently made its best CD, Albatross: How We Failed to Save the Lone Star State With the Power of Rock and Roll. It's a concept album about spelling bees, tacos, love, Buddy Holly and bank robbery, and if that sounds confusing, don't worry. The music's so infectious you may not even notice the lyrics.

• Fishboy performs Jan. 17 at the Cavern.
Thor Christensen


Future Clouds & Radar

If you don't like Future Clouds & Radar, just wait three minutes. That's when a whole new band shows up. Last year, the Austin group's self-titled debut CD earned comparisons to the Beatles' "White Album," and rightfully so: The 27-song double-disc hopscotches from art-rock to power-pop to tuba-laced reggae. No matter what the style, there's never a lack of singalong melodies. Future Clouds leader Robert Harrison – who sings like John Lennon crossed with T Bone Burnett – cut his teeth in Cotton Mather, which toured England with Oasis before disbanding in 2003. He spent the next two years lying in bed with a spine injury. But he's since recovered and is busy working on Future Clouds & Radar's second album, even as the first album continues to build steam: In December, the music magazine Harp named Future Clouds the Best New Artist of 2007 and ranked the group's CD as the year's fourth best record.

T.C.


Chris Holt/Slack

Chris Holt could be any musician he wants to be. Problem is, he wants to try every kind at least once. By his own admission, Mr. Holt can't stay with one project too long because he follows his muse readily – and his muse is essentially a butterfly. But whatever the multi-instrumentalist touches, especially if it's classic-pop-influenced contemporary rock, becomes gossamer in quality, approach and sensibility. His most recent band, the Slack, is his high point to date; the 2007 release Wishful Sinking (now available on iTunes) is stuffed with the kind of imaginatively pretty and dramatic songs that appeal to nearly any rock fan, especially since they're topped by Mr. Holt's soothing and highly listenable voice. In a perfect world, this guy would be a star instead of James Blunt or Dave Matthews.

• Mr. Holt performs solo at Club Dada on Thursday, Jan. 17 and Jan. 31; the Slack performs Jan. 18 at the Moon in Fort Worth.

Mike Daniel


Jackson Taylor

Put Jackson Taylor in a honky-tonk, dim the lights and let him and his band of pickers deliver saloon country with a Southern rock edge. On Dark Days, the goateed, tattooed singer-songwriter with the straw hat tips his brim to "Outlaw Women," "Honky Tonk Heroes" during his cover of the Billy Joe Shaver staple, and "Drinkin' Alone." Mr. Taylor was born in Moody, Texas, a small town north of Austin. He writes about what he knows, as every good honky-tonker should do, and he's lived in Washington, Nashville, New York City and Los Angeles before making his way back home. He has eight other discs to his credit, but Dark Days is the first distributed by Fort Worth-based Smith Entertainment, the company responsible for the Live at Billy Bob's Texas CD series.


M.T.



Jonathan Tyler & the Northern Lights

At 23, Jonathan Tyler is too young to have seen Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin or Janis Joplin, but he's got their sound down pat.

The Dallas singer-guitarist plays blues-rock with spit and swagger – check out his sweaty YouTube version of "Gypsy Woman" – but he also sings tender ballads that will appeal to the John Mayer crowd. Mr. Tyler and his band, the Northern Lights, recorded their debut CD, Hot Trottin, with help from local producer-engineer Chris Bell (Erykah Badu, Polyphonic Spree). And while it's not the most innovative album in the world, it has enough radio potential that major labels have reportedly begun sniffing around.

• Mr. Tyler and the Northern Lights perform Saturday at the Cavern.


T.C.


Arthur Yoria

Beyoncé, Blue October and chopped-and-screwed rap aside, Houston has the weakest music scene of any of Texas' major cities. But Mr. Yoria's astute and reverential songwriting makes him the city's current indie-pop king. His most recent release, Handshake Smiles, nearly swept Houston critics' 2007 best-of lists not just because his imaginative and reassuring songcraft is of major-league quality, but he's become unabashed about weaving Southwestern sounds (pedal steel and Tejano accordion on "Should Be," swamp-blues guitar on "Clean For Free," harmonica and spaghetti-echoed honky-tonk licks on the title song) into his oeuvre. Also known for recording in Spanish, the Chicago-born Colombian-American could easily catch a ride on the burgeoning wave of multiracial, multilingual pop stars.


M.D.



Nikki McKibbin

Grand Prairie-born Nikki McKibbin mixes the raspy power of Janis Joplin, the pop-rock propulsion of Pat Benatar and the dark allure of Evanescence's Amy Lee. On Unleashed, the former American Idol finalist's 2007 debut, the Fort Worth-based singer and her band Rivethead amplify the catchy hooks, the rock bombast and the grass-roots passion. Check out the disc's first three songs: the explosive "The Lie," a crunchy cover of "Cry Little Sister" from The Lost Boys film and the rock-funk onslaught that is "Electrik." She does one more cover, an acoustic take on Mr. Big's "To Be With You" that showcases her expressive yet lived-in pipes.


M.T.


Zykos

Austin's Zykos raised many eyebrows and much industry interest as a quartet a few years ago with two CDs full of inventive and passionate lo-fi rock explorations. But the addition in early 2007 of keyboardist-vocalist Catherine Davis to guitarist-frontman Mike Booher's soul-laced exclamations had caused a paradigm shift in both the band's general appeal and somewhat kinky and moody indie pop. The four songs on its latest recording, Keep It Light EP, makes most hot-to-trot Brooklyn-based rock acts sound like they're merely tuning up. The title track sounds like Explosions in the Sky mixed with Nick Cave, and "October Rain" feels like a Joe Cocker anthem by way of the Doors, Billy Joel and Eisley. The ideas are original, the execution novel and the direction smart and recognizably Texan.


M.D.


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