Tony Kinsel’s September 2009 Hossey Award Picks
I’m Tony, and these are my September picks….
Show Schedule | Contest Rules | The Awards
Ashley Austin–To The Moon & Back (Buy, Dang It)
Won the Dang Contest!
- Ashley Austin is from Grapevine, Texas, playing Texas Country and Pop Rock Music. 18 year old singer and songwriter Ashley won the Most Promising Vocalist award in 2006 in the Las Vegas World Showcase when she was 15 years old. She has a couple of songs available for free download on her website, www.AshleyAustinMusic.net, her cover of Pat Benatar’s “Hit Me With Your Best Shot”, and her cover of Maroon 5’s “Harder To Breathe” that I chose for her entry in last month’s contest, in which she came in 2nd. She’s getting ready to go into the studio in October to produce a cd of original music, so I got her to send me her song “To The Moon & Back” to enter in this month’s contest which should help get all of her fans ready for the new cd…
BackSeat Molly–Texas Not Tennessee (Buy, Dang It)
Finished 4th in the dang contest
- BackSeat Molly is from Palestine, Texas, playing  Texas Country & Southern Rock Music. They’re a 4 man group consisting of Steven Callaway on lead vocals & guitar, Stevie Jimenez on guitar, Adam Wright on bass, and Tim Phelan on drums. They just came out with their debut cd “Texas Not Tennessee” in July and sent it to me to add to the computerized rotation on HTB. I’ve chosen the title track of that cd for their entry in this month’s contest, but it was a hard choice because, as I seem to be saying alot lately, I liked every song on it. It’s also proved very popular on my DJ show on Sunday nights, as I’m getting e-mailed requests for songs off of it every week…
Brison Bursey Band–Convict Hill (Buy, Dang It)
Booted from the Contest After Week 2
- Brison Bursey Band is from Huntsville, Texas, playing Texas Country & Southern Rock Music. They’re a 4 man group, led by Brison Bursey on vocals and guitar, with Robert Morton on bass and vocals, John Mitchell on lead guitar and vocals, and Seth Novak on percussions and vocals. The group was formed in 2007 and has been touring in support of their debut cd “Bigger Sky”, which Brison sent me to add to the computerized rotation on HTB in July. Lately, they’ve been the opening act for groups like Stoney LaRue & The Arsenals and The South Austin Jug Band, among others. Last month, I chose the title track of their cd for their entry in the contest, but they couldn’t quite make it into the top ten, so I chose another song from them for this month, “Convict Hill”, which I hope will get more support, because this is another group that I think really deserves to make it into the finals in December!…
Buster Jiggs–She’s Gonna Break Your Heart (Buy, Dang It)
Made it to the Top 10
- Buster Jiggs is from Hondo, Texas, playing Texas Country & Rock Music. They’re a 4 person group, consisting of Kristin Muennink on guitar and lead vocals, her husband Scott on drums, Heath Childs on lead guitar and harmony vocals, and Cody Scherer on bass. The band was formed in Taft, Texas in 1999 by Scott, Kristin and Cody, and they currently have 2 cds out, a self-titled one, and an EP called “Miserably Happy”. Kristin just sent me a preview track, “She’s Gonna Break Your Heart”,  off their cd that’s coming out September 9th entitled “Heartache Jubilee”, and I’ve chosen it for their entry in this month’s contest. I hope this gets much more response than their song “Country Boy” that I chose last month…
David Lee Kaiser–Closer to My Dreams (Buy, Dang It)
Booted from the Contest after Week 2
- David Lee Kaiser is from Beaumont, Texas, playing Texas Country & Southern Rock Music. I first ran across David Lee when he was playing with his brother Jimmy in the Jimmy Kaiser Band, then came the Jimmy & David Lee Kaiser Band, and now David Lee has come out with a cd on his own entitled “12″, from which I’ve chosen the song “Closer to My Dreams” for this month’s contest. Listen to the lyrics, it’s about a guy who starts out selling drugs to support his family, gets busted, and then ends up working at Micky D’s…
Jason Custer–Greyhound Blues (Buy, Dang It)
Made it to the Top 10
- Jason Custer Band is also from Beaumont, Texas, playing Texas Country Music. Jason is originally from Hico, Texas, and has played with a number of well-known Texas musicians like Cross Canadian Ragweed, Gary P. Nunn and Kevin Fowler, among others. He went on a hiatus, musically speaking, when he served in the U.S. Army for several years, but is back now, and, as he says, better than ever. he sent me his entire “The Backroads” cd by e-mail to enter into the HTB computer, and last month I chose the title track for this contest, but it didn’t quite make it into the top 10. So, because I also think Jason deserves to be in the finals in December, I’m repeating him this month with another song from that cd “Greyhound Blues”. Let’s all vote for him more this time around!…
Leannasaurus Rex–You Can Have My Husband (Buy, Dang It)
Finished 5th
- Leannasaurus Rex is from College Station, Texas, playing Southern Rock & Blues Music. Leanne Swenson fronts the 5 person group “bridging the gap between Texas Blues & Country Soul” (as she says on MySpace), Brian Lippman plays bass, Eric Lindquist’s on guitar, Mike Fridel’s on percussion and Karl Rehn plays keyboards. Leeanne told me she used to be “Rockin’ Leanne Rogers” on KTSR radio in College Station, so she knows how Hoss & I feel about mainstream radio. She sent me their cd “Live” to add to HTB, and I did, and was floored by their cover of The Allman Brother’s classic “Whippin’ Post”. However, I decided to go with one of their own songs for this contest, so I chose “You Can Have My Husband, (But Please Don’t Mess With My Man)” a funny Blues song!…
Rebel Road–4 Wheel Drive (Buy, Dang It)
Booted from the Contest After Week 2
- Rebel Road is a 3-man group from Vastra Gotalands Lan, Sweden, playing Country & Rock Music. The members are Stefan Karlsson on guitars and background vocals, Markus Johannson on bass and Ulrich Seppenen on guitars and vocals.. I ran across this group on MySpace and decided to try to add them to the Swedish groups we’re already playing, like Rednex and The RockRidge Brothers. They were glad to be on the air here in Texas (so to speak)Â and sent me a couple of their songs by e-mail to add to the HTB lineup. I chose their song “4-Wheel Drive” for their entry in this month’s contest…
Sunday Morning Headcount–Pills & Wine (Buy, Dang It)
Finished 4th
- Sunday Morning Headcount is a 3-person group from Lafayette, Louisiana, playing Rock & Metal Music. Shane Andrepont is lead vocals and drums, Jason “Birdman” Landry is guitars and vocals and Chris Quebodeaux is bass and vocals. They also have a female singer in the song I’ve chosen from them for this contest “Pills & Wine”, (as you can see by viewing their video that I’ve posted on my blog), her name is Amy Arseneaux, and she’s described as a friend of the band who sometimes performs live with them. The song was written by Shane Andrepont, who said it was the result of a conversation he had with his wife, Jenny, while “chillin’ on a swing in the backyard”. “Pills & Wine” is a new release they’re pushing from their 2009 cd “You Wanted To Come”…
The BossHoss–Jose & Myling (Buy, Dang It)
Booted from the Contest After Week 2
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The BossHoss is a 7-man group from Berlin, Germany, playing Country & Rock Music. (As soon as I heard their name, I knew I had to play them on HossTheBoss!) The band members are; Hoss Power-vocals & acoustic guitar, Boss Burns-vocals, Gus Brooks-bass, Russ T. Rocket-electric guitar, Frank Doe-drums, Hank Williamson-harp, mandoline, washboard & stylophone, and Ernesto Escobar de Tijuana-percussion and melodica. They describe themselves as 5 guys from East & West Germany, with a couple of friends, 1 from Russia & 1 from France, who like to play Country Music. They’ve already won 3 gold medals in Europe, and some of their cds are available at Amazon.com. They sent me their cd “Stallion Battalion” to add to the HTB lineup, and I’ve chosen their song “Jose & Myling” for the contest. It’s a song about a Mexican guy and a Chinese girl who fall in love and are “singin’ & dancin’ and shakin’ their things!” It was a tough choice between this song and the 1st track on that cd entitled “Monkey Business” about the music industry, but, since they say the “F” word in it, I thought I’d give Hoss a break this month. Be listening to my show on Sunday nights, though, I will definitely be playing it then….
About Me:
I got started in broadcasting during my stint as a Signalman in the U.S. Navy during the Viet Nam era, working part-time as a DJ and newsman for a ship-board Armed Forces Radio & TV station on the USS Truckee out of Norfolk, Virginia. After being honorably discharged in 1979, I became a mainstream radio DJ and News Director in the Corpus Christi area for over 25 years on 9 different stations, including all 3 of the country-western ones. During that time I received 4 news broadcasting awards, 1 from the Associated Press & 3 from United Press International. I spent the last 5 years of my “career” on KFTX in Corpus Christi, constantly fighting with the program director over having to play their narrow top-ten Nashville music playlist of songs, when I really wanted to play Texas Music. I was finally shown the door after I played a Christmas-time phone request for Robert Earl Keen’s “Merry Christmas From The Family”, which was definitely not on the station’s playlist, (I really hate that word!). Now that I’m on HossTheBoss I can play what I want. Listen to my own dang show on the station every Saturday night at 7 p.m. Central.
My previous Hossey Music Award Picks
