Courtesy Of: HILL COUNTRY RECORDS A collection of bands from Hill County Records will come to Proud Larry’s Thursday.
Blues, gospel, country, rock ’n’ roll and soul music from the heart of Mississippi will be at Proud Larry’s, Thursday, Sept. 18 for the Hill Country Records showcase. Talented musicians and singer/songwriter’s from all over the state will be performing, including Tyler Keith, George McConnell, Tate Moore and Carl Massengale.
“The showcase is an opportunity to witness an impressive spectrum of original material composed and performed by Mississippi artists all at one sitting,” said Massengale, a solo musician who will be playing at the showcase during the songwriters’ portion of the program. “Being a songwriter myself, that’s what I want to hear – what others are writing. A program like this affords the legitimacy that is due to authentic purveyors of the songwriting craft who abide here in our midst.
“There’ll be some humor, self-examination, songs about love or heartbreak, character studies, cinematic plots, social commentary, and somebody will probably sing the blues,” Massengale said. “It’s real. It’s live creativity personally delivered by some talented musicians and lyricists from our home state.”
Hill Country Records was founded in 2008 when Justin Showah was engineering at Delta Recording Company in Como, Mississippi, and began recording himself. Showah decided he would start a label of his own, which he called Hill Country Records.
Ted Gainey became a partner and producer for Hill Country Records label after Showah produced three solo albums of Gainey’s. Showah was unable to spend as much time with the label and producing records, so Gainey took on the role of producer.
“Justin and I used to play in a few bands together, so we’ve known each other for quite awhile,” Gainey said. “He and his wife had just had their first child, and he did not have much time to dedicate to the label, so I thought that I could help. I partnered up with him back in May, and I have been producing records and putting them out on Hill Country. I do a little bit of management. Justin and I still check in with one another all of the time.”
Adrian Dickey will start the show. Dickey plays soulful, feel-good music. His performance will be followed by Tyler Keith, an Oxford native from The Neckbones, The Preacher’s Kids and the Apostles.
“If you look up the word rock n’ roll in the dictionary, Tyler’s picture is next to it,” Gainey said. “He is an Oxford rockstar.”
Several other talented musicians such as Ron Etheridge, from Greenville, Mississippi, will also perform. Gainey just finished working on Etheridge’s new record, “A Madman’s Masterpiece.”
George McConnell, originally from Vicksburg, Mississippi, and who played in two different bands – Beanland and the Kudzu Kings – will be performing. McConnell also played with Widespread Panic from 2002 to 2006. Hill Country Records distributes two of his solo records.
Tate Moore will be the last to perform. Moore is the lead singer from the Kudzu King’s. He is originally from southeastern Ohio and came to Oxford in 1992.
“I had always been a songwriter since I was about 10 years old,” Moore said. “So, I had a fake ID in 1992, and I started singing and playing in bars in Oxford. In 1994, I started a band named the Kudzu King’s. We played all original music. Blue Mountain was another band at the time that played all original music, directly out of Oxford.”
Nearly all of the musicians and singer/songwriters who are a part of Hill Country Records have been playing together for almost two decades. This is the second time musicians from Hill Country Records will be performing all together at the same venue.
Tickets for the Hill Country Records Showcase will be at the door for $10 and $8 in advance. Adrian Dickey will start the show at 6:30 p.m.
