TAOS DAILY , Aug. 10, 2007 [LINK]
Upcoming ROADHOUSE GEMS LIVE Features Boy-Girl Harmonies,
Fine Musicianship and Original Songs that Fans Crave
AUSTIN, Texas -- The Texas Sapphires, the five-piece alt-country-hillbilly-bluegrass combo set to release this summer its ROADHOUSE GEMS LIVE @ John T. Floore Country Store in Helotes (Stag Records), is touring behind the new recording and its debut, making stops from New Mexico to Wyoming, with several shows across Texas.
The Texas Sapphires play at 9 p.m. Friday-Saturday, August 10 and 11, at Sagebrush Inn, 1508 Paseo Del Pueblo Sur in Taos Cover is free; information: 505.758.2254.
The band's debut album on Stag (label co-owner Gary Moore says the combo fits the label's sound "like a well-worn vintage boot") was VALLEY SO STEEP, with a dozen songs like the swing-rocker "The Emerald Outlaw" that feature a classic twang and keen and clear harmonies by band front man Billy Brent Malkus and Rebecca Lucille Cannon, who "together make formidable duet partners."
Dirty Linen magazine (the April/May 2007 issue) continues: "... While the band's overall accomplished playing is enough to draw the listener in, The Sapphires' real beauty lies with Malkus' lyrics, which possess a poetic prose atypical of [roots-centric bluegrass, honky-tonk-country and singer-songwriter-folk]. Occasionally subtle metaphysical imagery seeps through, and many tunes are centered on quirky, humorous derelicts... Somehow it all works, and this disc can be treasured by those craving sharp steel guitar, fiddle and guitar flat-picking playing or those salivating for thought-provoking lyrics."
The upcoming release, recorded in the famous Texas country store of John T. Floore, will be out later this summer. Calling the band "a breath of fresh air," Americana singer-songwriter Jesse Dayton of Austin blessed The Sapphires for "bucking the trend of the ultra conservative/safe Texas Music scene."
In addition to Malkus (guitar, Dobro and piano) and co-lead vocalist Cannon, The Texas Sapphires are Bobby Daniel on bass guitar and Bob "Slim Bawb" Pearce on banjo, mandolin, Dobro and steel guitar. Honorary Sapphires include Lloyd Maines (Dobro, pedal steel), Kim Deschamps (pedal and lap steel, Dobro, banjo), Nathan Fleming (pedal steel, Dobro), Scotty Mathews (drums) and Justin Kolb (bass).