Singer and rhythm guitarist Brent McLennan credits the July review with boosting the Spokes’ Spotify numbers from between 400-500 plays a month to around 12,000. Offline, they can pack a Saturday-night dance floor at the Armadillo Palace, couples spinning and scooting to tunes by not only Merle Haggard, Hank Thompson, and Buck Owens, but Spokes originals like “All I Hear You Say.” The band dips into Brazoria County Friday night to play The Dirty South in Angleton.
Artall, who had recently bought a lap steel himself, was game. His tenure on the instrument didn’t last long, but the band did. He and McLennan challenged themselves to learn a handful of songs by 15 to 20 of the genre’s top artists — Johnny Cash, Ray Price, Faron Young, Lefty Frizzell, and so forth — by calculating how many would fill up a four-hour show.
Currently rounded out by fiddler Ellen Story, pedal-steel ace Kevin Skrla, drummer Gus Alvarado, and upright bassist William VonReichbauer, the Spokes’ lineup has been pretty stable for the past four or five years, Artall says. Mulling how best to capitalize on this recent burst of momentum, they hope to break into the Oklahoma market and make DFW as reliable a stop as Austin’s White Horse or Sagebrush.
“Especially with this band, at times we’re like, ‘Well, that’s probably about as big as it’s going to get; this is awesome, we’re having fun',” McLennan says. “Then it gets a little bigger and then we're like, ‘Ah, it’s probably about as big as it’ll get now.' Then it gets a little bigger.
KyleCoroneos I love it. Keep speakin', Mr. C.
KyleCoroneos They've earned the attention. Huge fan. Great sound. Album is fantastic. BrokenSpokesHTX