Larry Joe Taylor's Rhymes & Vines 2009 Review

Larry Joe Taylor's Rhymes & Vines is one of the best outdoor music festivals in Texas - the music is outstanding, there is onsite camping, the crowd is a small group of friendly music lovers, it's reasonably priced, and it's BYOB. This fantastic event, typically held in early September attracts a loyal (to Texas music, good times, and Larry Joe Taylor) crowd. It seems like most of the fans (including us) have attended all four events - which is a testimonial to this fun Texas outdoor music festival. In fact, we met a couple from Pennsylvania that has been flying down for the last 10 years just to go to Larry Joe Taylor's events!

Thursday night is always one of the highlights of Larry Joe's events, both Rhymes & Vines and his huge April Music Festival. This very entertaining evening of music is usually held, weather permitting under the trees, with three to four musicians picking and singing on stools on a small stone stage with a campfire blazing in front of some of the best entertainers in the state. It's an intimate setting and restricted to a limited number of music fans. This year, rain threatened, so the music was moved to the covered Palo Duro Stage. The setting wasn't as cool but the music was outstanding as Tommy Alverson, Jason Borland, and Larry Joe entertained us with their stories, humor, and best songs. What a way to start the weekend and we hated to see it end.

Jason Borland Tommy Alverson, Larry Joe Taylor, and Jason Borland singing together

Friday's music kicked off around 4 on the Palo Duro Stage. The music ranged from the soothing tales from the very talented troubadour Jed Zimmerman to the booming country voice of Charla Corn and concluded with the dynamic rock and roll Mike McClure Band. We hated to see Jed leave the stage and thoroughly enjoyed his set and his duo with Larry Joe was fantastic. The local favorites from Stephenville, the Cody Gill Band, lit up the stage with their soaring guitars, powerful vocals, driving drums and wide range of music. Jason Eady delivered southern gospel stomps, New Orleans soul, and the heartbreaking tide of sin and redemption through his rich baritone voice and raucous band. Charla Corn brought her infectious energy and arresting voice to the stage after Jason. The Josh Abbott Band entertained us with their powerful, ranging vocals, catchy lyrics, and unique sound of an electric banjo. King of the Red Dirt music, the Mike McClure Band with Mike wearing multiple hats, kept the crowd cheering and dancing until after midnight.

Mike McClure band Josh Abbott Band Jason Eady and his new fiddle player Cody Gill Band Charla Corn Jed Zimmerman

Unfortunately we had something come up on Saturday and we reluctantly had to pack up and head out Saturday morning. However, here is what my reporter in the field had to say about Saturday: "great crowd of fun, lively, and dedicated music lovers; excellent line-up, and the Rusty Wier tribute was a tear jerker. Rumor had it that Rusty, who was fighting cancer and passed away in mid October, may show up during the tribute by Larry Joe, Matt Martindale, and Davin James singing 'Don't it make you want to dance.' Rusty wasn't able to make it to the stage but I'm sure he heard us when Matt said 'sing loud enough for Rusty to hear us in the trailer.' Fantastic evening of excellent music."

Saturday's lineup included:

80 Proof Band - local high energy band with a new single about to be released
Davin James - Davin never lets you down with his enthusiasm, excellent songwriting, stage presence, and strong voice
Tejas Brothers - with a new lead guitar player, the Tejas brothers brought the house down with "You Don't Know Me," his Louis Satchmo Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World," and their outstanding blend of country soul, rock and roll, Texas blues, and Tex-Mex
Matt Martindale - love it when Matt plays the washer board and his stage presence is infectious
Larry Joe Taylor - Larry Joe is fantastic with a soothing combo of reggae, rock & roll, country, and laid back island music
Rich O'Toole - a super charged live wire who easily connects with the crowd by his dancing and blend of songs that range from rowdy, electric guitar-driven to the moody, lush, and violin-heavy
Reckless Kelly - what a way to end a wonderful evening of Texas Music, Reckless Kelly let loose with infectious energy, great song writing, and an outstanding blend of instruments

In addition to great music, what makes Rhymes & Vines one of our favorites is the camping, BYOB, and fans. All of the camping is very close to the stage and Melody Mountain Ranch has acres of land for primitive camping and over 200 water and electric sites. At all hours of the day and night, you can find music fans playing a variety of games, cooking, drinking, pickin' and singin' around the campfire, or or just trying to catch up on some badly needed sleep from too much partying the night before. After the main stage events, we typically meander through the campground and join the singing where you will usually find the headliners joining in with everyone else singing and partying around the campfire. Most people seem to sleep all morning so they can stay up all night listening or participating in some excellent jam sessions - we always find it hard to leave and usually pay the penalty the next morning.

One of the Rhymes and Vines food vendors Enjoying the music One of the campers at Rhymes and Vines The cheering crowd at Rhymes and Vines

In addition to some outstanding music, Rhymes & Vines is also a wine and homebrew competition and samples are usually available. If you don't feel like cooking, there are several vendors selling a good variety of food - corn dogs, fajitas, BBQ, hamburgers, sausage, and more. As mentioned earlier, this is a BYOB and lawn chairs event. Put it on your calendar for next year!