Danielle Nicole Band @ the 81 Club

Founding member, lead singer, and bass player of Kansas City blues-rock band Trampled Under Foot, Danielle Nicole stepped out on her own in 2015 with her debut album “Wolf Den.” In 2018, Nicole returns with a follow-up release via Concord Records.

“I grew up playing the blues, and the blues is still a big part of what I do.  But now I’m reaching out more and trying different things.  It still sounds like me, but I’m stretching out a lot more than I have previously.”

Nicole’s distinctive, inventive bass work—which resulted in her becoming the first woman to win the Blues Foundation’s 2014 Blues Music Award for Best Instrumentalist, Bass—is the product of years of intensive roadwork.  Although she had no experience with the instrument when she became Trampled Under Foot’s bassist, now she can’t imagine life without it.

“When I started doing my solo thing,” she continues, “someone asked me if I was gonna hire a bass player.  No, of course not!  I originally picked up the bass to keep Trampled Under Foot a family band, but I really fell in love with it.  It was a huge challenge, and it still is.  But I really love being part of the groove and getting to sing on top of that.  I had learned some stuff on acoustic guitar before I started playing bass, but I never really felt connected to it the way I do with the bass.  It’s empowering, walking onto a stage full of grown men who can play their asses off, and it’s ‘OK, I’m gonna play this bass, we’re gonna do this, and it’s gonna rock.'”

Rounding out her band are longtime Danielle Nicole Band guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Brandon Miller, and her older brother Kris Schenebelen [Trampled Under Foot] on drums.

“I think that it’s a good time for the kind of thing I’m doing,” she states.  “From my years of playing blues festivals, I’ve seen that younger and younger audiences are getting into the blues.  I think that people want to hear authentic music again.”

HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Fort Worth proclaims January 16  “Aaron Watson” Day. To commemorate the special occasion, he partners with Billy Bob’s Texas to raise more than $10,000 to support Fort Worth homeless population. Watson is inspired by the book Same Kind of Different as Me by local author, Ron Hall.

ABOUT AARON WATSON:

Aaron Watson’s career is perhaps summed up best by Forbes, who says he’s “one of country music’s biggest DIY success stories.”

For the past 20 years, Watson has achieved success on his own terms, hand-building a lauded career through songwriting, relentless touring, and more than a dozen self-released albums. His independent Texas spirit and strong work ethic are emblematic of the western lifestyle; virtues that have taken him from humble honky-tonks of Texas to multiple sold-out tours around the world.

In 2019 he released Red Bandana  — “his most ambitious album yet” (Taste of Country) —whose 20 songs were hailed by The Boot as “a pure expression of his traditional country ethos.”

This unprecedented acclaim follows Watson’s previous album, Vaquero, whose Top 10 hit “Outta Style” earned a BMI Millionaire award, and The Underdog, the first independent album in the history of country music to top the Billboard Country Albums chart.

With a dozen additional records under his belt, Watson is exceeding major-label-sized metrics while maintaining his independence, further galvanizing his “Texas country’s reigning indie underdog” (Rolling Stone) brand.  “There may be no more genuine singer-songwriter at the moment than Watson,” says Texas Monthly, pointing to a self-made businessman, chart-topper, and road warrior whose authenticity has made him a country music staple.