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Cowboy Homecoming announces headliners
., . - Wednesday, July 21, 2010

David Lee Garza, Kevin Fowler & Stoney LaRue to preform at Cowboy Homecoming.

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Popular Ranch Rodeo will be featured 2 days

The Hottest Festival in Texas, aka Pleasanton’s Cowboy Homecoming just got a bit hotter with the following entertainment headliners.

For a low price of $35, a wristband can be purchased to allow access for all three nights of music, plus all day Saturday. They are available at the Pleasanton Chamber of Commerce office, 605 2nd. St.
Thursday Night Coors Light Bike Night

David Lee Garza y los Musicales

David Lee Garza “ The Godfather of Tejano” or El Maestro del Accordion and his los Musicales will take the stage after opening act JR Castillo.

David Lee one of the most notable accordion players in the country with his unique style and musical riffs. After learning the Tejano and Conjunto music ropes with his family band, David Lee attracted fans across the globe, with CD and album sales over two million. This is one of the reasons he has had numerous Platinum and Gold award winning albums and CD’s. He has fans of all ages wanting to be the next super star to come out of David Lee’s camp. David has numerous TTMA, TEMA, Academy of Tejano Artists and Musicians Awards and twoGrammys to add to his credit.

David Lee has produced numerous vocalists such as: Ram Herrera, Emilio, Oscar G, Jay Perez, Marcos Orozco, and his current vocalist Mark Ledesma.

“I’ve recorded a lot of songs in the past 30 years that may be considered too Tejano,” David Lee reflects. But that keeps creating new relationships generation after generation with me. As long as radio supports our music and the fans keep coming to our performances, no matter what age, that’s what keeps me going and feeling good. This is one reason Texas Music Artists Kevin Fowler, Cory Morrow, and others have asked David to play on their CD.

The music of David Lee Garza is deeply rooted in TEX – MEX tradition. His distinguishable sound represents the legacy that has been created over the years with Tex – Mex fans from coast to coast.

David Lee’s music is a good fit for dancing crowds at concerts, festivals, and any live stage performance. Los Musicales consists of David’s brother’s Adam on drums, and Richard on bass. Other musicales include Oscar Montemayor on sax, Danny Fernandez on keyboards, and Billy O’Rourke on bajo sexto and vocals, John Cruz on electric guitar, and Mark Ledesma lead vocals.

After leaving Sony Discos, David Lee started his own label DLG Records. “AQUI ESTARE” is his fourth release under DLG Records produced by Mark Ledesma and David Lee. It has been getting major airplay on radio coast to coast and Mexico.

Friday Night after Queen’s Coronation
Kevin Fowler

From pubs to arenas, from dance halls to county fairs, the name Kevin Fowler always means a full house and cheering crowds. It will be no different at the Friday night performance after the Queen’s Coronation and opening act Kyle Park.

With his new CD Bring It On, Kevin delivers 100% Texan country with style. And if there’s something different about Kevin, it’s that inside his pearl-buttoned Western shirt beats a heart of rock.

That’s no surprise to his myriad of fans who know every word of his honky-tonk anthems such as Beer, Bait, and Ammo,The Lord Loves a Drinking Man and Loose, Loud and Crazy. In Bring It On ‘s new single, Long Line of Losers, Kevin pokes fun at what he calls that somebody in everyone’s family who annoys them, the relative who gets too drunk at the family reunion. It’s a way of laughing at yourself.

Down-home humor and heartfelt sentiment are prominent themes in Kevin’s music, and as important as a good beat. A native of Amarillo who grew up listening to Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard, Kevin rounded out his musical education in Los Angeles attending the Guitar Institute of Technology, and then returned to Texas to join the award-winning hard rock band Dangerous Toys. He dabbled with his own Southern rock band, Thunderfoot, in the late ‘90s before turning his full attention to his own vision of music.

Calling Kevin country rock sounds too tame. Southern country might be closer to the soul of his hybrid of Southern rock and country music. It’s the preferred music of a new generation of country fans. These savvy 20- and 30-somethings were raised on MTV as well as CMT. Their appreciation of country is evenly matched by a taste for rock ‘n’ roll, and no one knows that better than Kevin.

Our fans listen to us, to AC/DC and to Buckcherry, says Kevin. They want to hear what we want to play. They’re a very open-minded audience. We can mix it all together, and they like it. I have Merle and Metallica next to each other on my iPod.

That open-minded, sophisticated sensibility of country’s new audience is important to Kevin and played a large part in assembling Bring It On . His live shows incorporate the usual trappings of a big rock ‘n’ roll show with atmospheric smoke, bright colored lights and elaborate staging.

I wanted this record to resemble and sound like the live show, he says. There are a lot of songs on Bring It On that I wouldn’t have cut before. They’re too rock, and I didn’t want to freak anyone out. But one thing I’ve learned about our fans is that they don’t want a traditional record out of me. I can throw some screaming guitar in and crank the drums up. I can be more adventurous.

Adventurous, yes. Yet Kevin, whose songs often begin as a sticky note on the dash of my truck as I’m driving around, deeply understands the values held by country audiences. He may encourage the fans to party like a rock star on Feels Good Don’t It, but he gets a jones for Jones, a hankering for Hank on I Pulled a Hank Last Night.

Each new recording brings Kevin close to his heroes, and it was hard to equal a previous duet with Willie Nelson, but singing with George Jones on Me and the Boys did the trick. We sent George the lyrics and in a week we were in Nashville cutting it, he recalls with the grin of a little boy who’s just gotten the Christmas present he wanted.

For Kevin Fowler, the country rebel with a heart of rock, Bring It On is as good as it gets. This CD is where we’ve been, where we’re going and where we are right now, a snapshot of us frozen in time.

Saturday Night

Stoney LaRue

At three years old, Stoney LaRue could be found belting out “Swinging” by John Anderson on his Mr. Microphone radio. The son of a struggling bass player and a nurse, LaRue understood the allure of music at an early age, and recorded his first works at age twelve. He earned accolades through school for his unmatched vocal abilities and promising instrumental talents. Many subscribe Stoney LaRue to the category of artists that are simply natural born performers, just don’t try to limit him by category.

Born in Taft, LaRue actually spent the majority of his adolescence north of the Red River, where he was raised in Southeastern Oklahoma . He never really pictured himself doing anything else but making good music, so LaRue eventually made his way to the state’s Red Dirt hotbed of Stillwater, where he began to develop his individualized style from a widespread range of influences.

From Willie Nelson to Ray Charles, to The Grateful Dead and Kris Kristofferson, LaRue’s emerging style impressively blends varied elements of country, blues, and soulful rock into cohesive, vocal driven performances. His abilities earned the immediate respect of then “up and coming” peers including Cody Canada, Mike McClure, Jason Boland, and other cohorts of the revitalizing Texas and Red Dirt circuits (now electrifying audiences nationwide.)

In 2002, both fans and industry took good notice of LaRue after he spearheaded The Organic Boogie Band and released ”Downtown,” which was recorded in private sessions at Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa and mixed in a trailer on the side of a cliff in Bartlesville,OK. It was just the beginning, as the debut cemented LaRue’s following and inspired a move to New Braunfels, Texas, where a vibrant music community and a persistent touring schedule spawned a vast response.

Fans anxiously awaited the August 2005 release of Stoney LaRue-the Red Dirt Album, which hit the Billboard sales charts in its debut week. A far cry from the mixing trailer on the cliff, The Red Dirt Album was recorded with a tight circle of players and professionals in a studio setting. The record was a pinnacle effort for LaRue and has inarguably established his triple threat status as a truly gifted vocalist, player, and performer.

In 2006, Stoney released an addition to the famed Live at Billy Bob’s series. His live single, “Oklahoma Breakdown” topped the Texas charts for over four weeks and has ignited Stoney’s powerful support as an artist not to be missed. Armed with golden ear musicianship, an amusing wit, and soulful magnetism, LaRue’s shows are infused with an uplifting quality, a cathartic barroom brand of spirituality, where venues are complimented for good bar “feng shui,” and where time and dimension can be traversed via emotive lyrics and melodic riffs. A charismatic performer, LaRue’s flawless vocals can draw a crowd to a open mouth level of sonic mesmerization, and next have them singing “Forever Young” so loudly that you can’t hear anything else.

At 30, Stoney LaRue now performs close to 300 dates a year at top festivals and venues across the world, including the Caribbean and Europe, sharing bills with renowned acts like Lee Ann Womack, Gary Allan, Dierks Bentley, Cross Canadian Ragweed, Willie Nelson, Rodney Crowell and others. With a band that includes Jeremy Bryant(drums), Jesse Fritz (bass), Kevin Webb (guitar), Jeremy Watkins (fiddle) and Steve Littleton (keys), Stoney is poised for what is on the horizon to come.The music is undeniably inside of Stoney LaRue, but he’s the type of artist that doesn’t HAVE to point it out to you, his belief in the music is strong enough that it just powers through transparently. Stoney LaRue is not trying to be anybody but the artist that he is, and his sincerity just seeps out, spills off the stage, and overtakes any room.

Hotter Than Hell Ranch Rodeo replaces bullride

Not only will the entertainment be sizzling, the Hotter Than Hell Ranch Rodeo will take place at the Riverpark in place of the bullride.

New this year will be a Friday night event beginning at 7 p.m. with a Grand Entry and introduciton of all the teams.

It will have four events: Steer Doctoring, Calf Branding, Cowboy Rescue Races and Double Mugging.

The top eight Ranch Teams will advance to the Saturday night finals.

On Saturday at 2:30 p.m. the Little Ranch Hand Rodeo will begin. It will feature Pony Express Race, Goat Tying and Goat Branding.

At 5 p.m. the Ranch Rodeo performance will be presented.Saturday’s performance with have six events: Steer Roping, Claf Branding, Cowboy Rescue Races, Wild Cow Milking, Steer Loadin and Shovel Races. At intermission a calf scramble for kids 12 and under will happen.

Entry fee of $500 per team, books close August 16. This is a STRRA - South Texas Ranch Rodeo Association Qualifier For more information contact: Jim Gates 830/334-7170,1627 F.M. 2779, Pearsall, Texas 78061.Must have proof of negative Coggins on all horses!