SEE THE INTERVIEW ON WWW.TEXASMUSICSTAR.COM

If you've read any of my previous reviews, you know that I am just a bit
partial to live albums, My belief is that you get more of who an artist
really is when you hear them live and a live album is the closest thing
to a live music experience that you can get without being there. "Darryl
Lee Rush Live from the River Road icehouse" from Darryl Lee Rush is the
perfect example of this. Darryl Lee Rush is not only a great songwriter
but is one hell of a performer. As the first artist ever signed to
Shiner Records, the pressure to deliver great Texas music is intense.
But he does it. And he does it with such enthusiasm and energy that just
listening to the album makes you want to call into work the next day
because you are "not feeling well" from the night before.
True to the unconventional nature of DLR, the lead track on this live
album is not live at all. "Lot" is a studio cut, usually reserved for
the tail-end of albums, that highlights DLR's ability to communicate a
snap shot of a desperate life in thoroughly convincing fashion. When the
live cuts start on the album, I would suggest that you return the tray
tables to their upright and locked positions and extinguish all smoking
materials. DLR pays homage to his hometown right off the bat, with the
tune, "Town Too Tough To Die,"
giving the story behind the song without missing one raucous beat. He
follows it up with the Matthew Ryan penned song, "Irrelevant," which
will cause even the most casual listener to lose their minds at DLR's
talent for song delivery. There are only two other songs on this album
that come from the pen of others -- Steve Earle's "Johnny Come Lately"
and Sam Baker's "Truale." The rest are pure unadulterated DLR. "Uncle
Freddie Drove a Tractor," "White Trash Paradise" and "Smuggler's Prayer"
run the gamut of themes and emotions and further remind us why we love
live Texas music.
Speaking of Texas music, DLR gives us his ode to the genre that we all
love with the song, appropriately titled "Texas Music" that hits on
themes that all lovers of this music will be able to identify with.
Bottom line: Darryl Lee Rush gives us a pure Texas music album that is
at times rowdy, at other times serious and reflective. It makes us want
to consume copious amounts of Shiner beer and should be added to the
collection of any true Texas music fan.

- El Presidente

----
pigeon o'brien
pigeon publicity
www.pidges.com
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(314) 260-7787

Darryl Lee Rush
Saturday, March 10, at Club Dada
By Darryl Smyers
Published: March 8, 2007

East Dallas resident Darryl Lee Rush is the kind of gritty and straightforward songwriter that gives country music a chance to escape its seemingly endless fixation with bodacious blondes and mullet-addled super patriots. Instead of the slick gloss of contemporary Nashville or the big hat/no brains bravado of the likes of Toby Keith, Darryl Lee Rush thankfully settles for authenticity and keen observation. Rush's 2005 debut, Llano Avenue, was filled with astute character sketches and just the right amount of hayseed credibility. Along with rightly sentimental originals such as the title cut, even Rush's bluegrass infused cover of "Life in the Fast Lane" carried a healthy amount of respect for country music's legacy and an equal portion of disdain for the genre's continued embrace of mundane superficiality. Currently working on his sophomore release, Darryl Lee Rush is the real deal just begging for a larger following.

Rush had made up "The Lakewood Sound" on the spot, but after thinking it over, he muses that it might have legs. "Where else in Dallas would you find such a concentration of musicians?" he asks.

Where else indeed. But Rush adopted this neighborhood. He was born near the Gulf coast near the cotton and milo fields of south central Texas.

Lessons for fruitcake
There wasn't much to do in Markham, Texas, where Rush grew up, so music became an important part of his life early on In the sixth grade he started learning the guitar from the uncle of a friend, a narcoleptic bluegrass guitarist. Known to Darryl and the other citizens of Markham only as "Uncle Neg," the guitarist had quite an impact on young Rush. And the price was right. In return for weekly lessons, Rush's mother made Uncle Neg a fruitcake once a year in payment.

"Uncle Neg's narcolepsy was a little disconcerting," says Rush. "We'd head down to the store with Uncle Neg at the wheel and he'd forbid me to talk to him. He was afraid I'd make him laugh, his blood pressure would go up, and pretty soon he'd be asleep at the wheel." But the man could play, and he taught Rush well.

Rush grows up musically in Lakewood
After moving to Dallas from Austin, Rush started playing Wednesdays at the Light and Easy on Greenville (now defunct). Later he moved on to the Balcony Club, where he honed his performing skills. With another area resident, Don Gallia, on harmonica, Rush and fellow musicians were the Friday night happy hour band at the Balcony Club until their following got a little too rowdy for the tiny upstairs venue. They moved on to the Lakewood Bar and Grill, where they've been entertaining the crowds ever since.

Rush (far right) and bandmates (l to r) Scott Oldner on lead guitar, Andy Mayer on drums, Don Gallia on harmonica, and Mike McShane on bass.

"It's still the best place to hear us live," says Rush of the Bar and Grill, who feels that he and the band are at their laid-back, high-energy best at the local venue.

A little over a year ago, Rush and the band entered a contest sponsored by Shiner Beer. Besting better-known bands in each round, the boys won first place over hundreds of other bands, cinching a record contract with Shiner Records. Things started looking bright for Rush. "One day we're playing in the neighborhood, the next day we're opening for Diamond Rio at the Nokia Theater," says Rush, who still holds a "day job" but can now see a day when he can make his living with music.

"If I hadn't found Lakewood, I probably wouldn't still be in Dallas," says Rush. By all accounts, the rest of the world is about to find Darryl Lee Rush and discover "The Lakewood Sound."

Listen to "White Trash Paradise" (large file, requires MP3 player on your computer). You can find out more about Darryl Lee Rush, including upcoming show dates, at the MySpace site (darrylleerush) or their web site.

You can by Llano Avenue at your local record shop, at Amazon.com, and at the iTunes Music Store, among others.

Go to Joe's Podhole for a special interview from NOKIA THEATER

DALLAS OBSERVER 10.27.06.

"I try to write simple stuff," Darryl Lee Rush says. Basically, that means no songs about semiconductors.
Subject(s): Darryl Lee Rush performs at Southern Junction on Friday, October 28, with Robert Earl Keen. "I've been playing since sixth grade and always ended up with a lot of crap," Rush deadpans. Things changed last year when Rush won the Shiner Rising Star Contest and was awarded $15,000 to make a record. Rush's circuitous journey has taken him from the small Gulf Coast town of Markham to a stint in an Austin cover band and finally to the Lakewood area of Dallas, where he has been performing for nearly nine years.

Rush built a local following playing the Balcony Club while amassing an extensive backlog of forlorn country/folk. With the August release of his candid debut album, Llano Avenue, things have blossomed quickly. Several tracks from the disc have been picking up airplay on local roots station 95.3 The Range, and he and his band have just completed their first extended tour away from Texas, including a slot at the Americana Music Conference in Nashville in September.

Rush is surprised by the buzz that the CD has generated, particularly since he'd predicted that the making of the record would be a disaster. Rush was worried that the choice of producer he earned for his contest victory, the semi-legendary Gurf Morlix (Lucinda Williams, Robert Earl Keen), would scoff at the thought of recording with someone so little-known.

"I was just some guy who won some contest," says Rush, adding, "I got the impression that Gurf was reserved about putting his name on it."

Put his name on it he did--and more. Besides playing on the disc, Morlix also acted as chief editor. "I just went to his house and played him nearly every song I had written," Rush says. "He sat there saying, 'OK, that's a good one.' The ones he liked the most, we put them on the CD."

Morlix's choices were spot-on. The characters within the songs of Llano Avenue reflect a writer's appreciation of detail and strong narrative. In "Truale," Rush sings of the trials of a small-town girl who not only accepts her lot in life but revels in it. "She drove a T-bird with the top down, a cold beer between her thighs," Rush sings as Morlix adds a plaintive guitar solo.

The best cut is the title song, a sad elegy to a lost love and a friend who wandered the States in a van "because we could all use a little windshield time now and again." The song, which also pays tribute to Rush's life in East Dallas, is filled with the honest reflection and regret so often missing from hip Nashville hayseeds more interested in black trench coats, extra-large hats and sticking boots up asses.

"It's so much like therapy to write a song like 'Llano Avenue,'" Rush says. "I try to write about the simple stuff. Some young kids try to tackle such grandiose things, but I write about the people I've known and what they've told me."

As fine as his originals are, Rush proves his chops with a keen eye for covers. Whether it's classic Texana (Guy Clark and Terry Allen's "Queenie's Song") or little-known songsmiths like Hank Riddle (whose "I Believe in the Sun" is one of the album's highlights), Rush makes choices that mesh seamlessly with his own clearheaded, rural mindset.

The finest pick might well be Chris Knight's "Miles to Memphis," a song perfectly suited to Rush's weary baritone. "The song on the radio used to make me cry," Rush sings, grabbing hold of the song's quiet expression of remembrance and regret; this simple tale about a long, lonely drive mirrors Rush's own resolve.

Rush claims his influences include Harry Chapin and Jim Croce, but his muse is much closer to the late, great Doug Sahm and Guy Clark. While his storyteller's flair is similar to singer-songwriters of the '70s, his grit and demeanor are pure Texas.

"With me and my band, if we hit a wrong note, we are gonna hit it loud and we are gonna hit it fearlessly," he says when discussing the bluegrass version of the Eagles' "Life in the Fast Lane" included on the new CD. A very unlikely choice for a cover, the song is nonetheless transformed into a funny and engaging hillbilly romp.

With his short, national tour now complete and a big opening gig with Robert Earl Keen in Rockwall coming this weekend, Rush is taking stock of his life and the possibility of making music a full-time job. Rush sells parts to the semiconductor industry, and in the past, he has sold cars, stereos and even tried his hand at real estate. But now, approaching the dreaded four-oh, he has a chance at a career that has always eluded him.

"Sometimes I think, 'Could this have happened earlier?'" Rush says, pausing, careful with his words. "Maybe it was meant to be that I get to this point in my life and have experienced life enough for success to happen."

Rush finishes his beer and sees a handful of missed cell phone calls. Things are happening: shows to be booked, appearances to be planned. "Musically, this is the highest point I've ever been," he says, confident but a bit wary. "And what's really scary is that this is where all the real work really starts."

DALLAS OBSERVER 08.18.06

Darryl Smyers on Darryl Lee Rush
From the Dallas Observer

Llano Avenue, written and performed by Dallas resident Darryl Lee Rush, is the least hip country effort you are likely to stumble across this year. Starkly produced and raggedly played songs like “Truale” and “Miles to Memphis” mix humor and misfortune with nods to roots mavericks Terry Allen and Billy Joe Shaver. On the sturdy title cut, Rush sings about living in “that same old place right across from Tietze Park” and then delivers his best line, “If you didn’t have that caller ID / well, I swear I’d give you a call” with the kind of deadpan humor that often masks genuine sorrow. Such a solid country/folk throwback doesn’t show up here often enough, especially from a local.

Darryl Lee Rush has debuted at 35 on the Americana Music Association's Internet Chart for the week of October 3. #35 week of 10.31.05, #30 week of 11.07.05

Webb Wilder's interview on XM's X-Country channel. Webb's show is on 2-8pm Monday-Friday and 4-8pm Saturday and Sunday.

Record Release Announcement

Shiner Records, is pleased to announce the release of Darryl Lee Rush's debut CD Llano Avenue. Produced by Gurf Morlix,(Warren Zevon, Mary Gauthier, Robert Earl Keen, Slaid Cleaves, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Buddy Miller, Julie Miller, Ian McLagan, Lucinda Williams, Tom Russell) the project marks the beginning of an impressive chapter in the energetic career of this Dallas-based singer/songwriter.