Did it really take four and a half years for me to feature a country band on Indy In-Tune? Well, yeah, possibly, but not for lack of trying. I do recall co-sponsoring a country battle of the bands at 8 Seconds Saloon, which got pretty much no response, at least from the bands that perform original country music, and I have featured some borderline country bands, as well as some bluegrass on the show before. Then, of course, there's the ill-fated interview with a certain country artist here in town that, though I love the guy dearly, I couldn't actually use, because (and this is an absolutely true story -- I have several witnesses) I led with, "How did you get into music?" and two hours and forty-five minutes later, he finished answering just that first question. I still have the complete interview, and have promised to use it to pen his biography (or biopic) should he ever become famous, but there's no way I can get that edited down to a 35-minute interview and do him justice.
Cassidy, on the other hand, I have known off and on for nearly 20 years outside of the music scene, only recently having become aware of what she and her new band, Camby Road, were doing with her often-talked-about recording project. Of course, it still took over two years to get from, "I'd love to have you on the show sometime," to sitting down and putting a mic in front of her. As I said during the interview, it's something of a shock when you realize that karaoke-singing chick who was sucking down Margaritas at your birthday party the other day is actually a damned good singer with a killer backup band and fully-produced CD of original music to boot. To put icing on that cake, she's also got a great story and tells it well: from small-town Indiana dreamer, to recording in Nashville, back to small-town Indiana, and now on the eve of returning to Nashville for the first time as a headliner. Just goes to show you that there's always something new to uncover in this crazy scene if you look around your surroundings a little bit. As I've gone on record several times saying that, while I appreciate any good music, country is not exactly my first choice when deciding what local artist I'm going to go see on a particular night, so for those of you out there who are country music fans, I would greatly appreciate you spreading the word about Indy In-Tune to artists that you think would benefit from being featured on the show, and as always, point me to any local country groups that you think I might enjoy.
Links referenced in the show:
