Album: Holidays and Wedding Rings
Label: PledgeMusic Project
Release Date: May 19, 2015
An artist of singular talent and restless creativity, she broke into the Texas country/folk scene as one of the lead vocalists of the Sidehill Gougers, later known as just the Gougers before the band gradually gave way to not only Wilson’s solo work (the fine EP “Dirty Blonde Hair” was released in 2010) but also her highest-profile-yet musical adventures with The Trishas, an all-female singer-songwriter band that has toured through some of the state and nation’s best venues. Scoring one of the best albums of 2012 with High Wide & Handsome and framing Wilson’s stunning originals in the context of sisterly collaboration and harmony, the Trishas have brought her career to new heights while still leaving room for solo gigs, guest spots on over a dozen albums by now, and song-swaps with like-minded artists all over Texas and beyond.
In an interview with the Daily Country, she described the project:
"Everybody just became this little family and now we’re still all family,” she says. Other longtime pals in the fold include drummer/percussionist Silva and bassist Cody Foote, with whom she’s recorded and performed since their Gouger days. They form the album’s core band along with Scott Davis on acoustic and electric guitars, banjo, mandolin and lap steel, and Reckless Kelly’s David Abeyta on electric guitar. Pedal steel player Brian Rung and harmony singers/backing vocalists Courtney Patton, Gordy Quist (the Band of Heathens), Emily Bell and John Evans also contribute to various tracks; Bell and Evans, a couple, lend some spice to the made-for-two-stepping honky-tonker “Nighttime Blues.”
“They know me and the type of music I like to make,” Wilson says of her main band. “Recording with them is so easy and fun, and I can trust them to have killer ideas and to bring it all to the table.”
The type of music she likes to make is, she says, influenced by “the greats” -- Emmylou Harris, Kris Kristofferson, Guy Clark, Townes van Zandt, John Prine, Rodney Crowell and Tom T. Hall. But it’s equally inspired by those friends and contemporaries, including the Trishas and song-swap pals like Patton, Drew Kennedy and Owen Temple. “Their style creeps into my style and vice versa,” she says. “I love that. We’re a little team.”
Album: So This is Life
Label: Kickstarter Project
Release Date: June 9, 2015
Singer/songwriter Courtney Patton has flown a little under the radar in recent years, far from a household name but a welcome discovery for listeners who’ve found their way to her sweet, soulful, and subtle approach to classic country music. Her expansive voice, laced with deep Texas twang but bearing the influence of favorite songwriters from the ‘70s folk-rock scene all the way through the present day, gives new life to old themes of finding love and freedom where you can and trying to hold yourself together when it slips away. She’s already a favorite of some of the scene’s brightest artists, having collaborated and played with the likes of Mike McClure, The Trishas, and Jason Eady. With new material in the pipeline and a renewed interest in taking her music to a larger audience, she’s becoming not only a peer in talent but an indispensable part of the regional independent country music world herself.
From her Kickstarter page: "I'm headed back in to the studio to work on a new album under the guidance of my dear friend, Drew Kennedy, as producer. Drew gets a sound on his albums that I crave - raw, breathable, acoustically driven, stripped down. I aim to make a traditional country album that would make a younger Willie Nelson proud. Think "Red Headed Stranger" Willie. This record will be full of new material, including a few Larry Hooper co-writes and possible a cover of one of my husband's (Jason Eady) songs that was written for me to sing. I'm proud of how I've grown as a writer, and I'm excited about the material that will fill this album. It's country. And it's full of waltzes. And I'm not apologizing for either of those things."
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