Semisonic is an American rock band formed in Minneapolis in 1995, consisting of Dan Wilson, John Munson, and Jacob Slichter. They are best known in the U.S. for their 1998 top-20 single "Closing Time". They also had international success with the singles "Singing in My Sleep", "Secret Smile" and "Chemistry".
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (NGDB) is an American country rock band formed in 1966. The group has existed in various forms since its founding in Long Beach, California. Between 1976 and 1981, the band performed and recorded as the Dirt Band.
Magic Dirt is an Australian rock band, which formed in 1991 in Geelong, Victoria, with Daniel Herring on guitar, Adam Robertson on drums, Adalita Srsen on vocals and guitar, and Dean Turner on bass guitar. Initially forming an alternative underground band called Deer Bubbles which split and formed into the much heavier, rock based group called The Jim Jims, they were renamed as Magic Dirt. Their top 40 releases on the ARIA Albums Chart are Friends in Danger (1996), What Are Rock Stars Doing Today (2000), Tough Love (2003) and Snow White (2005). They have received nine ARIA Music Award nominations including four at the ARIA Music Awards of 1995 for Life Was Better – their second extended play. Turner died in August 2009 of dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans. From 2010 to November 2018, the band were on hiatus.
Cross Canadian Ragweed was an American rock band formed in Stillwater, Oklahoma in 1994. The band consisted of Cody Canada, Grady Cross (guitar), Randy Ragsdale (drums), and Choya Partridge. The group released five studio albums and three live albums from 1994 until 2010. The band was at the forefront of the rise of the red dirt music scene in Oklahoma and the Texas Music scene. After almost 15 years together, the group disbanded in 2010.
Clea were an English girl group whose members met on the television show Popstars: The Rivals in 2002. Chloe Morgan, Lynsey Brown, Emma Beard and Aimee Kearsley decided to form a band after they were voted off the series. The name 'Clea' is an acronym of the first letter of each member's name.
Little Texas is an American country music band started in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1988. Its founding members were Tim Rushlow, Brady Seals, Del Gray (drums), Porter Howell, Dwayne O'Brien, and Duane Propes. Signed to Warner Bros. Records Nashville in 1991, Little Texas released its debut album First Time for Everything that year. The album's lead off single, "Some Guys Have All the Love", reached a peak of No. 8 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts. Little Texas charted thirteen top-40 hits between then and 1995, including the number one "My Love" in 1994. Their debut album earned a gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), while 1993's Big Time was certified double platinum and 1994's Kick a Little was certified platinum.
The Mavericks are an American country music band from Miami, Florida. The band consists of Raul Malo, Paul Deakin (drums), Eddie Perez, and Jerry Dale McFadden (keyboards). Malo and Deakin founded the band in 1989 along with Robert Reynolds and Ben Peeler. After one independent album, the band was signed by MCA Nashville Records and David Lee Holt replaced Peeler on lead guitar; he would be replaced by Nick Kane shortly after their second MCA album and third overall 1994's What a Crying Shame. The band recorded a total of four albums for MCA and one for Mercury Records before disbanding in 2000. They reunited for one album in 2003 on Sanctuary Records, by which point Perez had become their fourth guitarist, and former touring keyboardist Jerry Dale McFadden became an official fifth member. The lineup of Malo, Deakin, Reynolds, Perez, and McFadden reunited a second time in 2012 for a series of new albums, first on Big Machine Records' Valory imprint and then on Mono Mundo. Reynolds was fired in 2014 and Ed Friedland served as touring bassist until 2023, with Malo taking the role of bassist soon afterward.
Restless Heart was an American country music band from Nashville, Tennessee. The band's longest-tenured lineup consisted of Larry Stewart, John Dittrich, Paul Gregg, Dave Innis, and Greg Jennings. Record producer Tim DuBois assembled the band in 1984 to record demos and chose Verlon Thompson as the original lead singer, but Thompson was replaced by Stewart in this role before the band had recorded any material. Between 1984 and 1998, Restless Heart recorded for RCA Records Nashville. They released the albums Restless Heart, Wheels, Big Dreams in a Small Town, and Fast Movin' Train in the 1980s.
Red dirt is a genre of country music that gets its name from the color of soil found in Oklahoma. Many red dirt acts got their start in bars surrounding Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, a city considered to be the center of red dirt music. The genre also extends to music made south of the Red River in Texas. Outlaw country legends Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson have been associated with the distinctive Texas sound, while the late Oklahoma singer-songwriter Bob Childers is widely recognized as the Father of Oklahoma red dirt music. At one time, the distinction between the two genres was sonically obvious, but by 2008, that gap had diminished.
"Mr. Bojangles" is a song written and originally recorded by American country music artist Jerry Jeff Walker for his 1968 album of the same title. It has since been recorded by other artists, including the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in 1969.
Jimmy LaFave was an American singer-songwriter and folk musician. After moving to Stillwater, Oklahoma, LaFave became a supporter of Woody Guthrie. He later became an Advisory Board member and regular performer at the annual Woody Guthrie Folk Festival.
"Fishin' in the Dark" is a song written by Wendy Waldman and Jim Photoglo, and recorded by American country music group Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, with Jimmy Ibbotson singing lead. It was released on June 7, 1987, as the second single from their album Hold On. It reached number-one on the U.S. and Canadian country charts. It was the band's third number-one single on the U.S. country music charts and the second in Canada. After it became available for download, it has sold over a million digital copies by 2015. It was certified Platinum by the RIAA on September 12, 2014.
Lady A, known until 2020 as Lady Antebellum, is an American country music group formed in Nashville, Tennessee, in 2006. The group is composed of Hillary Scott, Charles Kelley, and Dave Haywood. Scott is the daughter of country music singer Linda Davis, and Kelley is the brother of pop singer Josh Kelley. The band abbreviated the name to "Lady A" in June 2020 during the George Floyd protests in an attempt to blunt the name's associations with slavery and the Antebellum South, inadvertently causing a dispute with Black blues and gospel singer Anita White, who had been using the name Lady A for more than 20 years.
Stoney LaRue is an American Texas country/Red dirt artist.
Cody Jay Canada is an American rock/alt-country musician who currently is the lead singer and lead guitarist of the rock band The Departed since 2010. From 1994 to 2010, Canada was the lead singer of rock/alt country band Cross Canadian Ragweed.
Robert Wayne Childers was an American country-folk musician and singer-songwriter from the state of Oklahoma. Both before and after his death, he achieved widespread critical acclaim having been compared to songwriters such as Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie. Childers is often labeled the "father", "grandfather", or "godfather" of the regional Oklahoman music scene known as Red Dirt music.
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (NGDB) is an American country rock band. The group has existed in various forms since its founding in Long Beach, California, in 1966. The band's membership has had at least a dozen changes over the years, including a period from 1976 to 1981 when the band performed and recorded as the Dirt Band. The band is often cited as instrumental to the progression of contemporary country and roots music.
Mike McClure is an American singer, songwriter, and producer from Tecumseh, Oklahoma. He is currently the frontman for the Mike McClure Band. McClure is a founding member of The Great Divide, and was a member until he and the band parted ways in 2002. The Mike McClure Band consists of McClure, and Caleb Shirtum (bass).
The Departed is an American rock band. The band was formed in 2011 by Cody Canada, the former lead vocalist and guitarist for Cross Canadian Ragweed after that band broke up in 2010. The band currently consists of Canada, Jeremy Plato, and Eric Hansen (drums).
Reverend and the Makers are an English rock band from Sheffield, South Yorkshire. The band is fronted by Jon McClure, nicknamed "The Reverend". Their debut album, The State of Things (2007), helped them gain success in Britain and spawned the UK top 10 single "Heavyweight Champion of the World". The band released their second album, A French Kiss in the Chaos (2009), which led to them being invited to support Oasis on their final tour, playing venues such as Wembley Stadium. The band's third studio album, @Reverend_Makers, was released in 2012, their fourth studio album, ThirtyTwo, was released in 2014 which had more electronic and dance music influences. These were followed by Mirrors in 2015 and The Death of a King in 2017 which showcased a hard rock and folk influenced sound. Their seventh album, the soul and R&B inflected Heatwave in the Cold North was released in 2023 and became the band's first Top 10 album in the UK in 16 years.
