October is Local Music Month, KXT’s celebration of the sounds reverberating throughout North Texas! Each day, we will highlight different local artists you can hear on KXT. Check back here, find us on our social media or tune in to 91.7 FM to see the day’s featured artist.
In 1988, Edie Brickell & The New Bohemians released their breakthrough hit, “What I Am,” and landed a Top 10 hit in the US with the song. But the band’s story dates back even earlier, when several of the members were students at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing And Visual Arts in Dallas, including Edie Brickell who was focusing on visual arts at the time and told KXT’s Preston Jones “I wasn’t brave enough to study music in high school.”
Eventually, in the mid-’80s Brickell joined the “New Bos” and the band helped put Deep Ellum on the map, performing consistently at venues like Club Dada, 500 Cafe and Theater Gallery. “Our days playing at the 500 Cafe were some of our most special shows,” said band member Kenny Withrow in 2018. “Most of our memories are musical in nature, and have to do with the incredible vibe and feeling at the shows — the sense of community and a love for music everyone was sharing.”
Then, in the early ’90s the group disbanded. Three of the members (Brickell, Withrow and Bush) went on to form a side project called The Slip and Brickell proceeded to release two solo albums. Later, she would go on to join forces with comedian and musician Steve Martin for the collaborative album, Love Has Come For You (2013), and just last month she debuted a new project called Heavy MakeUp.
Since the band reunited in 2006, albums have been sporadic with releases in 2006, 2018 and 2021. They retained their core lineup of musicians – Edie Brickell, Kenny Withrow, Brandon Aly, and John Bush, as well as their bassist, the beloved local musician Brad Houser who died earlier this year.
Although the band’s activity can be somewhat unpredictable these days, Brickell believes the inspiration and spark will always be there. “There’s always something there, and all you have to do is set your antenna and receive it,” she told Jones in recently. “When you do that with other people, and they’re nice people, the energy in the room feels so good. There’s so much to express that isn’t just you, it’s not just me, it’s the collective feeling, and what they inspire.”
You can hear even more local music at noon Mon-Fri on Local Bites and on the KXT Local Show on Thursday nights at 7 p.m. If you’re an artist from North Texas, you can submit your music to KXT for consideration right here.
Amy is a weekend host on KXT. She created and hosted the KXT Local Show during her tenure as KXT’s program director from 2015-2021.
Our work is made possible by our generous, music-loving members. If you like how we lift up local music, consider becoming a KXT sustaining member right here.
