The Lonesome Heroes Are A Trip.

"While this past March’s edition of NX35 in Denton featured far more acts that weren’t from Denton than last year’s inaugural edition did, the majority of the conferette’s line-up was made up of artists from Denton, and the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, understandably. With that said, it was one of the bands from outside of the Mean Green surroundings of Courthouse Square that provided me with my most pleasing unexpected surprise of the musically packed weekend.

The Lonesome Heroes out of Austin, turned their set in the comfortably crowded, stale but cozy basement of J & J’s Pizza in Denton into their own little living room concert.

They refer to themselves as “psychedelic country”, and they really aren’t joking. The groovy elements that helped make up a good chunk of the great 1970’s country rock that came from the Golden State are put to use here, as well. In a live setting, the not-so-lonely band mates, Rich Russell and Landry McMeans, come off as quaint and folksy. As they chatted ever so neighborly with the enamored group of spectators, I almost expected one of the performers to offer to serve up the pizza that was coming out of the kitchen.

It was when McMeans told the crowd that, for their last song, they wanted to bust out a “spacey, hippy song”, that I finally heard the substance to back up their lofty claims of being more than just your average country rock band from Austin. “Constant Vacation” was in fact, a dreamy, trippy ode to their life on the road. McMeans even dropped down practically to her knees in order to finagle a little distortion from her Dobro. Now, that’s trippy, bro."