Music Festival

Fans of live music and Waco spring nights can sample both this weekend in two concert series, one long-established and the other a newcomer, kicking off their 2023 seasons.

Brazos Nights, the older of the two, will return in full to Indian Spring Park on Friday night, with long-established Texas country/pop/Western swing band Asleep at the Wheel capping a varied musical program, punctuated by a first-time aerial drone show between acts.

Saturday night features the launch of the Levitt AMP Waco Music Series at Bridge Street Plaza, the first of 10 Saturday night dates for the new concert series and one showcasing local musical, artistic and other talent each week. First up is Taushey Sias and the Waco Community Choir.

Brazos Nights, the city’s free concert series held monthly April through June with a Fourth of July finale at McLane Stadium’s Touchdown Alley, returns to Indian Spring Park for the first time in four years. City parks director Jonathan Cook noted that pandemic disruptions canceled the 2020 season and, coupled with Suspension Bridge restoration work last year, moved the music series to Heritage Square.

Moving Brazos Nights back to its longtime location made Austin’s Asleep at the Wheel, which has played several Brazos Nights shows over the years, an appropriate selection for the occasion, Cook said. The iconic band plays a broad range of overlapping styles, including Western swing, country, pop, blues and jazz, earning nine Grammy Awards in the process. Leader Ray Benson started the band more than 50 years ago and knows Waco well, most recently playing a Christmas show last year at the Waco Hippodrome. The band’s notoriously revolving lineup, now numbering more than 100 former players, also has featured several Waco musicians over the years.

Also bringing the music on Friday is veteran Waco mariachi band Mariachi Azteca, which will open the evening, and Austin soul/pop singer and guitarist Jackie Venson. The 33-year-old Austin native, who’s released four studio albums, recently won national attention for playing guitar with Alanis Morissette at the CMT Music Awards.

The drones will make their Waco debut between Venson and Asleep at the Wheel at approximately 8:30 p.m. with 150 drones outfitted with lights taking flight to make illuminated patterns in the sky.

The show will take place several hundred feet above the Brazos River between the Washington Avenue and Suspension bridges, with a Waco-themed program that, in honor of Saturday’s reopening, features a tip of the hat to the Waco Suspension Bridge. Visual effects company Sky Elements also has staged shows for the Grammy Awards, Dallas’ New Year’s Eve and Austin’s SXSW Music Festival.

In addition to the live music, Brazos Nights also will feature food and drink from several food trucks. Next month’s Brazos Nights concert has a Cinco de Mayo flavor with La Fiera de Ojinaga and Los Texmaniacs as featured acts.

Local vibes

Saturday’s Levitt AMP Music Series will combine live music and an outdoor setting, but with a different, closer-to-home vibe. The music will come from Taushey Sias, the Waco Community Choir, Tonee B. Shelton and DJ the.sweetest.t with visual art and activities also reflecting talent from Waco and Bridge Street Plaza’s neighborhood.

A market and other activities at the plaza will run from 5 to 9 p.m., with musicians performing between 6 and 9 p.m.

The new free music series comes as a result of a three-year, $90,000 grant from the Levitt Foundation in a program aimed at stimulating local music in midsize cities. Waco community support in a survey last year brought the grant home, making Waco one of 15 grant recipients and the only one in Texas this year.

The series’ first year will run Saturdays through July 1 with no concert on Memorial Day weekend.

“To the inspiring first-grade students at Heyer Elementary, keep being YOU.”

WAUKESHA, Wis. — Miley Cyrus’ foundation responded to the news of a Waukesha elementary school banning one of her songs from its upcoming first-grade music concert.

The School District of Waukesha said Cyrus’ song “Rainbowland” was ultimately found too controversial.

A classroom teacher suggested the song to the music teacher. According to the school district, the music teacher checked with the principal to determine if the song would be acceptable to use in a first-grade music concert. The principal then checked with a central office administrator. The two reviewed the song alongside the district’s “Board Policy 2240 – Controversial Issues in the Classroom.” In accordance with the policy, they determined the song “could be deemed controversial.”

Instead, the song “Rainbow Connection” by Kermit the Frog was selected.

On Saturday, the Happy Hippie Foundation tweeted: “To the inspiring first grade students at Heyer Elementary, keep being YOU. We believe in our Happy Hippie heart that you’ll be the ones to brush the judgment and fear aside and make all of us more understanding and accepting.”

The Happy Hippie Foundation is a non-profit organization founded by Cyrus in 2014. It focuses on youth homelessness, the LGBTQ community, and other vulnerable populations.

In a previous statement, the school district said the decision was supported by Superintendent Jim Sebert, and at no time was the Board of Education involved.

The song, which is a duet with Dolly Parton, includes lyrics like, “Living in a Rainbowland where you and I go hand in hand. Oh, I’d be lying if I said this was fine. All the hurt and the hate going on here We are rainbows, me and you. Every color, every hue. Let’s shine on through. Together, we can start living in a Rainbowland.”

Likewise, Rainbow Connection by Kermit the Frog includes lyrics, “Someday we’ll find it, the rainbow connection. The lovers, the dreamers, and me. Who said that every wish would be heard and answered when wished on the morning star? Somebody thought of that and someone believed it. Look what it’s done so far. What’s so amazing that keeps us stargazing and what do we think we might see?”

According to the board policy, “a controversial issue is a topic on which opposing points of view have been promulgated by responsible opinion and likely to arouse both support and opposition in the community.”

Flatline Movement tour another step to saturate music world with light, godly influence

DeAndre’ Burns said a song is the only thing a person will listen to hundreds and hundreds of times.

“I have a favorite sermon, but I have not listened to it 100 times. Same with movies,” he said. “But with music, you listen to it so much that you recite what is being said even if you don’t like what is being said.”

That’s the problem, he noted — hip-hop music is filling the minds of young people with messages that are tearing them down. And Burns and others are trying to find the solution.

“Our goal is to saturate the music world with what we have to offer,” said Burns, general manager of Flatline Movement, a ministry started years ago to reach urban youth through Christian hip-hop.

Right now, they’re working hard on that goal from the studio and planning tour dates for the coming months. They’re getting close to finishing their first solo project, which covers rap, rhythm, praise and even jazz, Burns said.

Burns is one of the artists, along with his son, Dillon; daughter, Christa; and seven others.

‘Blessed to work together’

“I’m blessed by what comes from all of us together. Altogether it’s 10 of us in the group, and our goal is to release two projects a year in addition to our solo projects. People are going to be tired of seeing us,” he joked.

But Burns knows in order to get the message out there, that’s what’s needed. 

Hip-hop is the No. 1-selling genre in the world right now, he said. “Over the years, it’s continued in its momentum, and it’s become a regular in most households, especially those with young people.”

And the influences are becoming darker, he said.

That’s why Flatline Movement wants to produce music that’s full of light, Burns said. “We have to use everything at our disposal to make sure people get to hear the gospel in a way they understand.”

That’s why the tour is important to them too — they want to get the word out and saturate Alabama with the message of the gospel through rap, he said. “We want people who host us to rest assured we’re coming with the gospel and only that, and we pray everyone would be able to hear it and receive the Lord where they are.”

Alternative message

Dewayne Rembert, pastor of Flatline Church at Chisholm and founder of Flatline Movement, said even Christian youth are listening to secular hip-hop music, so it’s a concern not only for unchurched youth, but also those growing up in the church.

“We need to do a better job as a church of giving them an alternative with a different message,” he said.

Burns said anyone interested in bringing Flatline Movement to their church, school or other local venue this year can reach out through the contact information on its website. 

“We’re excited about what the Lord is going to do. We’re ready for it, whatever it is He would have for us.”

SBTRKT was one of the electronic scene’s most crucial architects—then he disappeared for seven years. Now he talks about his new album, working with Drake and more.

Garage, jungle, and house music are more mainstream globally than ever before, thanks to artists like PinkPantheress, Shygirl, and Mura Masa. But it was  British producer-songwriter-DJ SBTRKT who helped seed the U.K. electronic music explosion in the early 2010s as a prolific remixer and, with the release of 2011’s self-titled debut, artist. He went on to work with artists like Sampha and Little Dragon, released a popular Drake remix, and become known for this live performances. After he released his last LP, 2016’s SAVE YOURSELF, the plan was to then release music “more frequently,” he says now. Unfortunately, it took seven years for the musician, born Aaron Jerome, to return. But his new album, The Rat Road, is his best since first one.

Jerome spent the last five years expanding past dance floor escapism and catharsis. The Rat Road is lush and warm, but also tense and anxious. And while his early post-dubstep music was widely covered by the music blogs that were then plentiful, he has always kept his personal profile low, making him feel at once known and unknown—a perfect avatar for today’s uncertain times. 

“The music industry itself has become something where you look at your peers around you and there’s no comparison or goals that you could share and say, ‘What works for you works for me,’” Jerome says. “I think there’s a level of unknowns and everyone is fighting for the scraps of how it could piece together.”

GQ spoke with SBTRKT about his new album, how one of his tracks ended up in Drake and 21 Savage’s “Jimmy Cooks” video, and whether an artist can be anonymous in 2023.

As someone who really fell in love with music during the blog era, you’ve always been an important artist to me.

My career is owed to the blog era, that’s for sure. One of my big things about now is that we don’t have that culture anymore of supporting the underdogs, per se. It’s all about the bigger stats. That time was so important for me, the post-vinyl club era stuff, but then pre-complete DSP social control. There was a magic point where people’s personal opinions mattered [laughs].

One of the things I always pick up when I’m working with collaborators is that people gravitate toward whatever the biggest things are happening, whether it’s something on Netflix that everyone has to watch or it’s [someone like] Kendrick dropping an album. Everyone has to have an opinion on that very much immediately, whereas back in the day, it just felt like you would go to the record shop for the point of discovering something you’d never seen or heard of. I’m one to champion that, possibly for the fact that you paid for it, so you felt you needed to put some more time into the ownership of it. 

The financial investment today feels so much smaller, that you don’t feel as compelled to spend time with a specific body of work.

In a secondary way, the DSPs [digital service providers, like Spotify] are controlling almost all the stuff which does get prevalence. What stuff gets discovered, picked out, or put in playlists is generally what fits within the system, essentially. That’s where music is. If you’re gonna make a certain type of alternative dance track, you’ve got to be in a certain genre space or tempo range or a certain feeling to be getting the exposure. You change those rules and you’re basically making yourself disappear, essentially. It’s a lot harder to be found or discovered in that sense.

Could you establish the timeframe of when the album came together?

[From 2016 onward], I’ve probably written around 1500 tracks. Compared to previous time I spent on music, this was a lot more intense in terms of experimenting and teaching myself more things than I’d done in the past musically. My first album was written over a period of two years in the bedroom of a flat I had in South London. I had this grand vision from all the years before of experimenting then I found the collaborators I wanted to bring into that mix and was working with Sampha once a week for a period of two years, gelling and creating the momentum for a finished record. 

My second album was born off my live touring of the first. I got really into that whole sense of spontaneity, having lots of keyboards and just messing about, nothing too pre-planned. 

And then, fast forward to the SAVEYOURSELF period, which was almost reactionary to both the previous ones. I was kind of in the position of being independent, thinking, “How and what do I want to say as SBTRKT going forward? What is the element that makes a SBTRKT record a SBTRKT one?” Was that production? Was it the vocalists? Was it my ability to morph between genres?And I felt like I really needed to hone in on what I wanted to say within that mix and individually bring across, I suppose. And so like, that process was more me sitting in my studio going “I’m going to write every track myself until the point I feel comfortable to bring someone else in and at that point have a much stronger vision of what I wanted collaborators to do in that mix than be like ‘Well I’m just open to whatever happens.’

You seek out a  tremendous amount of music, but I’m curious what for you takes a new artist from “I dig what they’re making” to “I want to make music with them=”? 

There’s always a point when something turns into a new language for me. So, for example, the first single [off The Rat Road]  is a track “Waiting,” which features Teezo Touchdown. I was aware of him because I’d seen him on the Call Me If You Get Lost tracklist with Tyler [the Creator], and heard him in that context as something very unique to that record.  But then he dropped this song called “I’m Just a Fan.” I was blown away by his lyrical content, but also his ability to songwrite and the uniqueness of the way he was presenting his voice. So [he] was like, a complete outlier to most people that London artists work with. I hit him up and he was coming to London, so we hung out and created a few things.