Live at The Live Oak CD Release Party

Singer/songwriter Courtney Patton has flown a little under the radar in recent years, far from a household name but a welcome discovery for listeners who’ve found their way to her sweet, soulful, and subtle approach to classic country music. Her first full-length record, "Triggering A Flood", was released in May 2013. Her expansive voice, laced with deep Texas twang but bearing the influence of favorite songwriters from the ‘70s folk-rock scene all the way through the present day, gives new life to old themes of finding love and freedom where you can and trying to hold yourself together when it slips away. She’s already a favorite of some of the scene’s brightest artists, having collaborated and played with the likes of Mike McClure, The Trishas, and new husband Jason Eady. With new material in the pipeline and a renewed interest in taking her music to a larger audience, she’s becoming not only a peer in talent but an indispensable part of the regional independent country music world herself.

"I suppose realism is what I look for in new music. I want to believe a new song. That happens when I hear Courtney's music. Her voice is rich and unique and that's something that's been a dormant quality in the "woman's world" of country music for a long, long time!" - Adam Hood

"Over the years I've watched CP grow into a singer/songwriter to be reckoned with. Top shelf." - Mike McClure


Keegan McInroe is a Texas based singer-songwriter. Weaving threads from old country, old blues, gospel, and rock & roll together with his own unique voice and perspective, McInroe creates an original tapestry of American roots music, earthy and lyric driven.

In 2003, Keegan McInroe participated in founding rock & roll outfit, Catfish Whiskey (2003-2009), in Fort Worth, TX. Since 2008, he has troubadoured primarily as a solo artist performing and rambling all over Texas, the united States, and Europe.

McInroe has shared the stage with Leon Russell, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Ian Moore, Eric McFadden, Otis Taylor, Randall Bramblett and The Band of Heathens.


Optimism is not a word usually associated with a Nicholas Altobelli album. However, if you look hard enough, there are faint streaks of light all through his collection of new songs entitled Searching Through That Minor Key (out on July 7th via Dalton Records).

Shortly before the release of the 2013 acclaimed album, Without a Home, which was praised by No Depression as “pop perfection,” Altobelli quietly entered the studio to work on new music. “I went in with no plans to make another album. I just wanted to hoard as many songs as I could for my song vault and release them many years later if at all,” Altobelli recalls. However, it was quite clear early on that there was something special going on.

Once again, Salim Nourallah (Old 97’s, Rhett Miller) was at the reigns guiding an all-star lineup of Texas musicians that included John Dufilho (Deathray Davies), Joe Reyes (Grammy winner), Paul Slavens, Chris Holt (Sorta), Laura Scarborough, Rahim Quazi and many others.
By the time Halloween of 2013 arrived, the album was 85% finished and was on pace for a second quarter 2014 release.

However, Altobelli was confronted with growing troubles at home. “My marriage was crumbling and there was nothing I could do. The only thing I could do was put the album on hold indefinitely,” he says. “And being the dedicated, or overly obsessed, songwriter I am, I began to write new music and that’s where the Mesocyclone EP materialized.”

Mesocyclone was recorded during the hiatus from Searching Through That Minor Key during the winter of 2013/2014. The EP was released in August of 2014 to acclaim. Exclaim! Magazine in Canada called it “Americana roots perfection” and the EP also garnered local praise in North Texas.

After Mesocyclone, Altobelli almost decided to scrap the unfinished album. “There was a point where I didn’t know if I connected with these songs,” he says. “I’m used to writing about my inner turmoil with nothing but darkness. However, these songs had faint glows of optimism and it felt foreign to me.”

The light he references can be found subtly throughout the album. The lead single, “Sarah,” reminisces about a high school crush, “Dogwood” embraces a life path and decision, and “In The Morning” begins with the hopeful lyric, “Death may come a little too close/But I will feel alive in the morning.”

While there is a hopeful light to a majority of the songs, this would not be a Nicholas Altobelli album without some darkness. “Painted Aeroplanes” tackles the death of his grandfather, “Alabaster” narrates the story of a recently passed individual pleading with his survived lover to find new love, and “Pile of Leaves” is a journey through an autumn afterlife in search for an eternal home.

One of the most peculiar songs of Altobelli’s catalog can be found on this album. “Metal Tree” (the only song on the album in a minor key) tells the story of two astronauts whose love for each other is eroding while they struggle to live on the moon’s desolate surface. “This song has been in my back pocket for a long time, waiting to be released,” Altobelli explains. “I have no idea where this song came from. It is one of those that falls in your lap like a feather. If you don’t grab it quickly, it will blow away and be lost forever, or end up on someone else’s lap. I was lucky and snatched it up before anyone noticed.”

Certainly it is the most varied collection of songs Nicholas Altobelli has recorded, with both light and shade well represented. The search through that minor key will probably never be over but for this trip, Altobelli has made some important discoveries.


Matthew Gray began his young career as a solo performer playing locally while fine tuning his craft for songwriting. Before long it became apparent that his musical vision included more orchestration and hands; enter The Arrogant Sea. Watching them play together is a magical experience filled with dreamy omnichord pop and hints of folk psychedelia.


A career in music is a long process to achieve. It takes years of grueling patience. Years of long nights, in empty rooms, just hoping the handful of by chance attendees are giving you at least half of their undivided attention. As a songwriter, every song is a personal journey. From the instant a melody is born, to the last line of the final verse, a writer gives every part of every moment to the in between.

Bobby Duncan has been living these moments for nearly a decade. With three records produced to date, (2006 “Lonesome Town”, 2009 “Faith, Hope & Everything Else”, 2012 “Forever From Here”) Bobby has sacrificed the possibility of greater life achievements at the altar of the “out-of-the-way” corner stage in countless bars.

Beginning his journey in 2005, with a handful of youthful songs, Duncan began performing at open mic nights around the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. The very green artist he was, Bobby honed his public performances in three song sets, on any given weeknight. It was through these open mic nights, and some patrons who saw potential in young Bobby, that he was introduced to veteran singer/songwriter Walt Wilkins. After a meeting at Wilkins’ Austin area home, Walt, and then producing partner Tim Lorsch, agreed to produce Duncan’s first full-length album, “Lonesome Town”. To say the wheels began turning at a rapid pace would be an understatement. Duncan graduated high school in May of 2005, and production began at the Austin studio of Ray Benson, of Asleep at the Wheel fame, in late September of the same year.

Even with a polished product light years beyond the live recorded acoustic performances Bobby had gathered from many of the open mics, Duncan was still very new to the business of music making. It wasn’t until June of 2006 that, “Lonesome Town”, was released. A few months after the release of his first album, Duncan began to receive airplay on local Dallas/Fort Worth radio stations with his songs, “My Brew and Me”, as well as, “Back Out on the Town”, the latter gained traction throughout the region, and saw much airplay around Texas.

Over the years following his first release, Duncan and Wilkins had developed a much closer relationship, and the two reunited in January of 2009 to produce Bobby’s second studio effort, “Faith, Hope & Everything Else”. While all of the songs from the first release were penned solely by Duncan, the majority of the credits from, “Faith, Hope & Everything Else”, were created by Duncan and new songwriting partner Donovan Dodd. With Duncan’s fresh melodies, and Dodd’s background as an english professor, the two wrote the tracks to Duncan’s most successful record. Three singles were released to Texas radio from the record Duncan and Dodd lovingly call, “F.H.E.”, beginning with, “These Days”. The first single would be the most successful from the album while the following two singles, “Should I Give Anymore of Me”, and “Waiting to Hurt”, would provide solid follow-up airplay that extended the record’s life far beyond that of its predecessor.

Along with his band, Duncan began to see crowds growing all across the state. Nowhere more than his home base of Fort Worth, TX was the success more prevalent. As the crowds began to grow, Bobby drew interest from famed Fort Worth honky tonk Billy Bob’s Texas. Duncan achieved one of his childhood dreams of headlining the World’s Largest Honky Tonk in June of 2009. The success of the first show was unprecedented to Bobby and his band as they drew over 1,500 people. They truly had reached new heights in just a short amount of time since the May 5th release of, “F.H.E.”

As often is the case with songwriters, they begin writing for their next project immediately upon finishing their previous, and the partnership of Duncan and Dodd, was no different. However, they could feel the direction of the songs evolving melodically. When you age in such a public way as songwriting, everyone has the opportunity to pull back the curtains of a young life. Duncan quickly realized that the first sample of songs for his next project would call for a shift in the mindset of how to produce the new record. Searching for a new avenue, and in an attempt to improve as an artist, Duncan parted ways with his band of four years to focus on re-energizing his passion for creating music.

Shortly after switching back to performing acoustically, Duncan met with producer Justin Tockett from Nashville, TN. Tockett had worked with acclaimed songwriter Radney Foster on several of the albums Foster had produced, as well as producing his own records for artists such as Marc Broussard. Tockett and Duncan agreed to a trial production of two songs from the group that would become Duncan’s third studio album. After the first song was tracked, Duncan knew the path he should take, and the pair teamed up to make, “Forever from Here” over 2011 and 2012.

Duncan’s third effort is a much more polished, almost poppy, release. It shines on songs such as the title track, as well as, “Nowhere Left to Run”, and hints at Duncan’s love for artists such as John Mayer, Amos Lee, and Sara Bareilles on the tracks, “Apart We Fall”, and “It’s Hard to be Around You”.

As music has become a profitable business for many non-artists, Duncan released his new product in a much less public fashion. Relying on grass-roots and social media, instead of radio promoters and magazine ads, “Forever from Here”, didn’t generate the critical buzz that his second album did, but it has found a large share of loyal listeners that find the change from a more standard Texas singer/songwriter style, to a much larger sound, refreshing.

2012 and 2013 were big years personally for Bobby as he bought a house in his longtime home base of Fort Worth, TX with his longtime girlfriend, and they eventually married in December of 2013. (The marriage was presided over, in part, by longtime friend Walt Wilkins).

Whatever the future holds in music for Bobby Duncan, we have yet to see. The arduous process of grinding out a musical career continues. But, it is the path less chosen that often reaps the greatest rewards, and one faithful journeyman on that path is Bobby Duncan.