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UPCOMING EVENTS

march, 2021

21feb(feb 21)10:00 am08mar(mar 8)10:00 pmHot Chicken & Cheese Challenge for Genesis Women's Shelter(february 21) 10:00 am - (march 8) 10:00 pm Dallas, Uptown | 3656 Howell St Dallas, Texas 75204Order Online

Looking for a way to help those in need after the Texas winter storm? The Rustic is launching our Hot Chicken & Cheese Challenge to support Genesis Women’s Shelter & Support after the devastating damages the organization suffered from due to the storm.

**For every Hot Chicken & Cheese Sandwich purchased for a family in need, The Rustic will match with another. Head here to donate –> Order Online

The community can donate sandwiches for up to two weeks from Feb. 21-March 8. We’ve partnered up with Alto to safely deliver these meals to Genesis on The Rustic’s behalf starting Monday, Feb. 22.

OTHER WAYS TO HELP: Additionally, we are partnering with Fin Ewing, from Mercedes Benz of Plano, to set up sprinter vans as donation drop-off spots in The Rustic’s parking lot. Guests can bring new items to donate to Genesis families or choose to provide monetary donations. Genesis has listed essential items needed on its Amazon Wish List (https://amzn.to/3uj0gxC). For more ways to give back, visit https://www.genesisshelter.org/give-items.

MORE ABOUT THE SITUATION AT HAND: Due to unsafe conditions caused by the winter storms, Genesis had to close the doors of its emergency shelter and transitional housing facility for the first time in its 36-year history and temporarily relocate families who were living onsite. The campus suffered extensive damage from burst water pipes and will require unprecedented repairs to its infrastructure, living spaces and security systems. As Genesis begins the rebuilding process and families are able to safely move back in, the staff will need support to continue feeding 50 clients daily.

Time

February 21 (Sunday) 10:00 am - March 8 (Monday) 10:00 pm

Location

Dallas, Uptown | 3656 Howell St Dallas, Texas 75204

02mar7:00 pm9:30 pmTexas Independence Day with Mike RandallFree Live Music7:00 pm - 9:30 pm Dallas, Uptown | 3656 Howell St Dallas, Texas 75204

04mar3:00 pm10:00 pmMask-erade Mardi Gras CelebrationFree with RSVP3:00 pm - 10:00 pm Dallas, Uptown | 3656 Howell St Dallas, Texas 75204RSVP Now

05mar6:00 pm7:30 pmMountain NativesFree Live Music6:00 pm - 7:30 pm Dallas, Uptown | 3656 Howell St Dallas, Texas 75204

05mar9:30 pm11:00 pmRuby JaneFree Live Music9:30 pm - 11:00 pm Dallas, Uptown | 3656 Howell St Dallas, Texas 75204

06mar12:30 pm2:00 pmJam and Toast Brunch with Tommy LukeFree Live Music12:30 pm - 2:00 pm Dallas, Uptown | 3656 Howell St Dallas, Texas 75204

06mar4:00 pm6:00 pmJustin MyersFree Live Music4:00 pm - 6:00 pm Dallas, Uptown | 3656 Howell St Dallas, Texas 75204

06mar9:30 pm11:00 pmAlex AguilarFree Live Music9:30 pm - 11:00 pm Dallas, Uptown | 3656 Howell St Dallas, Texas 75204

07mar12:30 pm2:00 pmJam and Toast Brunch with Blake BurrowFree Live Music12:30 pm - 2:00 pm Dallas, Uptown | 3656 Howell St Dallas, Texas 75204

07mar4:00 pm6:00 pmJoseph VeazieFree Live Music4:00 pm - 6:00 pm Dallas, Uptown | 3656 Howell St Dallas, Texas 75204

11mar7:00 pm8:30 pmStefan Prigmore, Garrett Owen, Heather LittleFree Live Music7:00 pm - 8:30 pm Dallas, Uptown | 3656 Howell St Dallas, Texas 75204

12mar6:00 pm7:30 pmMike RandallFree Live Music6:00 pm - 7:30 pm Dallas, Uptown | 3656 Howell St Dallas, Texas 75204

12mar9:30 pm11:00 pmChris BeallFree Live Music9:30 pm - 11:00 pm Dallas, Uptown | 3656 Howell St Dallas, Texas 75204

13mar12:30 pm2:00 pmJam and Toast Brunch with Jade NickolFree Live Music12:30 pm - 2:00 pm Dallas, Uptown | 3656 Howell St Dallas, Texas 75204

13mar4:00 pm6:00 pmReid PerryFree Live Music4:00 pm - 6:00 pm Dallas, Uptown | 3656 Howell St Dallas, Texas 75204

13mar9:30 pm11:00 pmAustin MeadeFree with RSVP9:30 pm - 11:00 pm Dallas, Uptown | 3656 Howell St Dallas, Texas 75204RSVP Now

Event Details

Join us for an evening with Austin Meade!

***This event is free with RSVP. Seating will be subject to availability, on a first come first served basis.***

RSVP Now

About Austin Meade:

On Black Sheep, Austin Meade delivers songs and stories that, like the young singer/guitarist himself, are contradictory yet cohesive. His influences—musical and otherwise—are as varied and rich as the small-town Texas soil that nurtured his talent, yielding 12 stellar songs ranging from the insinuating multi-layered musicality and storytelling of “Déjà Vu” to the dark alt-pop of “Happier Alone,” and on further to the new-age, Sabbath-inspired “Dopamine Drop.”

Thanks to his metal- and classic-rock loving dad, Meade got to see bands like Judas Priest and worshipped Whitesnake. In junior high he related to the intense emo-rock of Paramore and Fall Out Boy, and the power of songwriters like John Mayer. Yet, thanks to plainspoken but deep heartland songwriters like Tom Petty, and cutting his teeth touring in the Texas and Oklahoma Red Dirt scene, Meade’s music overflows with wide-open soulfulness. He was a drummer for years, even teaching to pay the bills, but Meade found his true voice when he began playing guitar as a teen in his pastor-father’s church. Those experiences lend both a gravitas and rebelliousness to Meade’s songs and self.

The songs on Black Sheep, produced by Taylor Kimball (Koe Wetzel, Read Southall, Kody West) are instantly memorable, but far from simplistic. Meade challenges the status quo, both musically and lyrically. “I like to question those standard math formulas,” he explains. “What if we just add two more lines and make somebody feel uncomfortable here,’ because the song itself is about being uncomfortable?” And within a song—and video—like “Déjà Vu,” Meade explores the cyclical, Groundhog Day-like nature of a month—or lifetime—of Sundays.

Throughout school, “I was one of the weird kids who actually liked writing class. I would describe ridiculous stuff, and in elementary school I was a Harry Potter nerd. I’d get lost in those books,” he remembers. Soon, though, records became his new sanctuary. “I started to hear songwriters that were telling stories in three to five minutes; concepts and ideas that were not only spanning just that one song. One of my favorite lyricists is Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys; the way he describes things, you can almost touch it or smell it.”

Likewise, on Black Sheep, Meade’s vivid descriptions are palpable and immersive. They paint a picture the listener can step into, like taking a journey through “two-lane highways and speed-trap towns” that Meade traverses in “Déjà Vu.” “That’s my goal,” he explains. “To make people feel like they’re in the room with the stories in my songs; they’re within that experience.”

Meade’s carefully crafted songs manage to be profound and provocative, sonically suited for both dive bars and arenas. From the seismic guitars and painfully honest lyrics of a song like “Dopamine Drop” to the mournful, lilting nostalgia and hard reality of “Settle Down” and on through the fantasy of “handwritten letters, candle-wax seal, Midwest American feel” in “Cave In,” it is clear Meade’s ambitions and dreams are weighty.

The songs are ably aided on Black Sheep by his band, longtime guitarist and creative partner David Willie and drummer Aaron Hernandez; newest member bassist Jordan Pena isn’t on Black Sheep. In recording the LP with producer Kimball, Austin committed to exploring and experimenting with new ideas. “I wanted to put more pedals and crazier sounds on Black Sheep… I want to be constantly changing and morphing as an artist,” Meade says, “making sure that I’m opening myself up to new opportunities and new tones.”

The closing song that gives the album its title is self-referential and accepting. “‘Black Sheep’ is me realizing that, ‘fuck it, I don’t have to change what I’m doing, I don’t need to feel like I have to fit in.’ Just because I’m playing in Texas and Oklahoma doesn’t mean I have to play more country, or only an acoustic guitar. I own who and what I am.”

Further expounding on the record Meade notes, “I like to break people’s hearts at the last minute, sometimes unsuspectingly: ‘Comfort is a hard drug.’” While not immune to the appeal of a white-picket-fence future, he wants more… for himself, and others. “I want people to look at lyrics like that and figure out if it challenges them to move or challenges them to make themselves a better person. To do what they want to do with their life and achieve their dreams, rather than just letting everybody else tell them what life is ‘supposed to be.’”

To that end, he’s been following his muse and paying dues for most of his young years. Playing every dimly lit restaurant stage that would help pay bills in college. (At Texas A&M he studied for agricultural economics, which he terms “a business degree, just a little bit more Texan.”) Meade’s also spent the last six years honing his songwriting skills on two indie EPs and two albums prior to making Black Sheep. And his talent has not gone unnoticed, the Dallas Observer writing that Meade’s “rich guitar-driven melodies and tone call back to times when Tom Petty and Jimmy Page ruled the stage. … His songwriting prowess is beyond his 26 years, with lyrics and characters acting as conduits into the mind of a young man trying to sort out his feelings as the state of the world smacks him in the face.”

Black Sheep was written and recorded in late 2019, and meant to be released independently–until Snakefarm got a hold of it and immediately signed Meade. The frontman is well aware that the hard work that’s led to this point is just the beginning. After all, he lays it out in “Black Sheep”: “Comfort is a hard drug … do you ever want to leave this town?” For Meade, placid hometown comfort is in the rear-view—or will be once touring starts up again, as he boldly sings his statement of intent: “I am the black sheep / running til I’m six feet.”

TIPS for the show:
— COME HUNGRY: We’ll have our full menu available all day!
— ARRIVE EARLY: Please note for all RSVP’s: all seating is first come, first served and based on availability.
— RAIN OR SHINE
— KEEP IT WARM Our covered tent will be up & we’ll have heaters throughout the backyard!
— TICKETING QUESTIONS? Contact Prekindle Online Ticketing at www.prekindle.com.
— PARKING: There is limited parking at The Rustic.
— RIDE SHARING is strongly suggested. Don’t drink and drive
— YOUR SAFETY IS OUR TOP PRIORITY: The Rustic is operating at limited occupancy and adhering to all CDC and Dallas County guidelines and regulations to ensure your safety.

Time

(Saturday) 9:30 pm - 11:00 pm

Location

Dallas, Uptown | 3656 Howell St Dallas, Texas 75204

14mar12:30 pm2:00 pmJam and Toast Brunch with Clay ThrashFree Live Music12:30 pm - 2:00 pm Dallas, Uptown | 3656 Howell St Dallas, Texas 75204

14mar4:00 pm6:00 pmBB Palmer + Taylor HunnicuttFree Live Music4:00 pm - 6:00 pm Dallas, Uptown | 3656 Howell St Dallas, Texas 75204

18mar7:00 pm8:30 pmD and ChiFree Live Music7:00 pm - 8:30 pm Dallas, Uptown | 3656 Howell St Dallas, Texas 75204

19mar6:00 pm7:30 pmJD WilkesFree Live Music6:00 pm - 7:30 pm Dallas, Uptown | 3656 Howell St Dallas, Texas 75204

Join us for free live music from JD Wilkes!

About JD Wilkes

JD Wilkes is an American musician, visual artist, author, filmmaker and self-proclaimed “southern surrealist”. He is an accomplished multi-instrumentalist (notably on harmonica and banjo), having recorded with such artists as Merle Haggard, John Carter Cash, Mike Patton, and Hank Williams III. Wilkes’ latest solo album Cattle in the Cane (Arkam Records, January 2015) includes his own renditions of traditional tunes (mostly old-time mountain music), with performances by elder Kentucky fiddler Charlie Stamper (the brother of Art Stamper) on many of the tracks. In the last two years, Wilkes has continued to develop his solo project, having toured with Charlie Parr and The Tillers, as well as performing at the 2015 Winnipeg Folk Festival.

Wilkes is perhaps best known as the founder of the Legendary Shack Shakers, a Southern Gothic rock and blues band formed in the mid 90s. Fans of his work with Legendary Shack Shakers include Stephen King, Robert Plant and former Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra. Rolling Stone named Wilkes as the “best frontman” at the 2015 Americana Music Association Festival for his performance with the band. Regarding the group’s “southern gothic” lyricism, Billboard Magazine said “[Wilkes writes] mind-blowing lyrics rife with Biblical references and ruminations of life, death, sin and redemption.” Legendary Shack Shakers have toured with the likes of Robert Plant and The Black Keys, among others. Their music has been featured in HBO’s True Blood series, and in a long-running Geico commercial.

JD Wilkes has been compared to iconoclasts like David Byrne, Iggy Pop, or Jerry Lee Lewis, and with his small, wiry frame and intense, incandescent performances, it’s not hard to see why. But while he plays the carnival barker onstage, he’s a dedicated lifelong student of true Southern culture. Master banjo player Dom Flemons said, “JD is a real old-Kentucky banjo player and he can take that to the bank! I gotta watch out next time I see his banjo.” A resident of Paducah, Kentucky, Wilkes is a Kentucky Colonel, an honorable title bestowed by the state’s Governor upon those with a connection to, or who are famous residents of the state of Kentucky. In 2015, Wilkes was featured on the BBC original series Songs of the South, in an episode focusing on the musical history of Tennessee and Kentucky.

Aside from his prolific career in music, Wilkes is also a published writer, having recently authored the book Barn Dances and Jamborees Across Kentucky, an exploration of his state’s social music and dance history based on extensive fieldwork and research. A true Southern Renaissance man, Wilkes is also an accomplished visual artist (specializing in comics, sideshow banners and book illustrations) as well as a documentary filmmaker (his documentary Seven Signs explores “music, myths, and the American South” and was screened at the UK’s prestigious Raindance Film Festival).

Time

(Friday) 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

Location

Dallas, Uptown | 3656 Howell St Dallas, Texas 75204

19mar9:30 pm11:00 pmTBA MusicFree Live Music9:30 pm - 11:00 pm Dallas, Uptown | 3656 Howell St Dallas, Texas 75204

20mar11:00 am3:00 pmSpring Pop-Up Market11:00 am - 3:00 pm Dallas, Uptown | 3656 Howell St Dallas, Texas 75204

20mar11:00 am3:00 pmFirst Day of Spring Celebration11:00 am - 3:00 pm Dallas, Uptown | 3656 Howell St Dallas, Texas 75204

20mar12:30 pm2:00 pmJam and Toast Brunch with Simone Nicole & Trees MarieFree Live Music12:30 pm - 2:00 pm Dallas, Uptown | 3656 Howell St Dallas, Texas 75204

20mar4:00 pm6:00 pmKevin LovettFree Live Music4:00 pm - 6:00 pm Dallas, Uptown | 3656 Howell St Dallas, Texas 75204

20mar9:30 pm11:00 pmSummer of '69 (Bryan Adams Tribute)Free Live Music9:30 pm - 11:00 pm Dallas, Uptown | 3656 Howell St Dallas, Texas 75204

21mar11:00 am3:00 pmSpring Pop-Up Market | The Rustic11:00 am - 3:00 pm Dallas, Uptown | 3656 Howell St Dallas, Texas 75204

21mar12:30 pm2:00 pmJam and Toast Brunch with Paul RennaFree Live Music12:30 pm - 2:00 pm Dallas, Uptown | 3656 Howell St Dallas, Texas 75204

21mar4:00 pm6:00 pmMike RandallFree Live Music4:00 pm - 6:00 pm Dallas, Uptown | 3656 Howell St Dallas, Texas 75204

25mar7:00 pm8:30 pmAaron McDonnellFree Live Music7:00 pm - 8:30 pm Dallas, Uptown | 3656 Howell St Dallas, Texas 75204

Join us for free live music from Aaron McDonnell!

About Aaron McDonnell

Singer and guitarist Aaron McDonnell was born and raised in Oregon’s rural Willamette Valley to a mill-working father and a God-fearing mother. He bought his first guitar, a knock-off Telecaster, when he was 15 years old and proceeded to learn everything from Garth Brooks to Nirvana, however it was the sound of the older generation that captured his imagination; George Jones, Johnny Cash, and Conway Twitty songs drifted from the radios and turntables of his grandmothers’ kitchens and living rooms. This heritage is alive and well in McDonnell’s earnest and straightforward songs, and strong, clear baritone.

Aaron’s emergence as a full solo artist is the culmination of a tough yet inspiring road which has spanned nearly a decade, including the formation and dissolution of three bands, recording of five records, and work with several top engineers/producers including; Tom Pfaffle (Nirvana, Black Crowes, Heart), Steve Aguilar (Dave Matthews Band, The Head & The Heart), Phillip Peterson (The Posies, Portugal. The Man), Bob Hoffnar (Hem, Norah Jones, Ryan Adams), and John Evans (Billy Joe Shaver, Kevin Fowler, Hayes Carll). That said, Aaron’s story would be incomplete without mentioning the impact that Dani, his wife has had. They have sung together since first meeting in The Grandtours, and she was instrumental in encouraging Aaron to quit his day job to focus on music as his primary career. She is a major source of inspiration and his muse.

With true purpose, Aaron’s songs explore age-old themes of love, heartache, failure, and faith. They are classic in their influence and unpretentious in their delivery. At once familiar and fresh, Aaron McDonnell is both an authentic homage to the sounds of the past, and an exciting example of what is to come.