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Dallas MusicWire Featured Story

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by Lacy Radcliff

Barley House may be located on SMU

Boulevard, but don’t call it a college bar.

Since it’s move from the Knox/Henderson

area, Barley has been trying to regain its fixture

as an important venue for the local Dallas music

scene. So they’re going to bring back a Juke Box

filled with only local bands and musicians. And

they’re pairing it with a philanthropic endeavor.

Great music for an even greater cause.

The legendary Dallas bar is doing something

different. Local musicians are able to mail in their

music to the Barley House in order to get their

songs in the Juke Box. All of the proceeds on the

Juke Box will go to the Carter Albrecht Foundation,

the organization honoring the very talented and

much missed Carter, a man who was a major

impact in the Dallas music scene.

In Carter’s honor, the Albrecht family has estab-

lished The Carter Albrecht Music Foundation. Many

of Carter’s friends are involved in developing and

supporting the foundation. The foundation is dedi-

cated to the growth and betterment of music in

Dallas by offering assistance in education, devel-

oping skills and improving the quality of life of

its musicians.

Amanda Cecil, the mastermind behind the Juke Box

return, believes that this will be the beginning of a

new page for the once local music hangout. “Ever

since we moved from Knox Henderson, we’ve

been tagged as an SMU bar; we used to be such

a musician hangout,” Cecil said. She believes that

this event will hopefully reaffirm their stature as a

musically oriented bar to local bands, as well as a

monumental way to reach out to the Carter Albrecht

foundation.

Cecil says that from the inspiration of Carter,

people have been reaching out left and right. “This

thing has taken on a life of its own,” she said.

The feedback has been astronomical, especially

in response to Carter and the music scene’s appre-

ciation for his work.

The cleverly titled “Home Grown” Juke Box party

will happen on Sunday, November 8, and musi-

cians are invited to attend when they send a copy

of their CD and a mailing address to the Barley

House.

So, to all of you magnificently talented musicians:

submit your music for a chance to be heard regu-

larly at the Barley House!

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w w w. b a c k s i d e p i c k . c o mw w w. m y s p a c e . c o m / b a c k s i d e p i c k

To the people that did not attend the Dallas Observer Music Awards: I say with full-hearted confidence that you must not miss it next year. Not only was it a “rip-roaring” time, but the list of bands nominated precedes itself in worthiness of reference. In particular, I’d like to highlight Backside Pick, a nine-piece funk band from

Denton, and DOMA winner of Best Funk/R&B Act. DMW got a hold of Backside Pick founder Rocky Ottley, to talk about what’s next for the groove band.

Ottley, a graduate of the University of North Texas, said he never took on the “leader” position in a band until Backside Pick, which began as an arrangement project with school members, eventually turning into something more profound

and concrete, the lineup changing since the original, with the addition of other instruments, like the horn section.

Backside Pick Article by Lacy Radcliff

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“I always wanted people to feel what I am feeling,” Ottley said, when discussing why he chose a big band for a way to channel his passion of musical arrangement. Ottley also said that inter-estingly enough, he’s starting to play as a smaller ensemble, more of a rhythm section, primarily because of the major cost of having the production of a big band all the time.

On the Dallas versus Denton issue, Ottley has no bias. He blames the constant comparison on the miscommunication of the idea that they’re two different music scenes, or that the drive is too far to commute back and forth for shows. “So many people that go to shows that don’t live in either one; it doesn’t seem to me that anyone determines those as separate markets,” said Ottley. “There’s a lot of struggle between the two as a competition, and I would really like to see that fade.”

Getting yourself out there is also an important issue for Ottley. He believes that you have to take into account all of the other musicians out there treating their music as a 24/7 job. Up and coming musicians have to live and breathe music, constantly work at it, and make every decision based on how it will affect their career. Looking at a music career as a serious job will get you farther than living up to the ever-provoking “grass is always greener” fairy tale fallacy of the music business.

Ottley and Backside Pick will be playing through the begin-ning of November. After this, they will move onto the writing and recording process of their follow-up album to the well-received Like I Do EP.

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Managing Editor Art DirectorWriter

Jeff Kauffman, Jr.Donny StevensLacy Radcliff

If you are planning on going I will see you there. If you are not going…you should be. ALSO! If your CD is in the JukeBox, please let me know. I frequent the Barley House often and would love to play your tunes. See you there!

Barley House Party Nov. 8th