In today’s world of over produced country music that is made for the masses,
it’s not always a bad thing to be a little left of center or to do things your
own way and not have 25 people looking over your shoulder telling you what to
be, what to wear, how to sing and which songs to sing. That road that is a
little left of center is the exact road that the members of the John D. Hale
Band intend on taking. Be it wrong or be it right, the JDHB is dead set on
making country music their own way - without exceptions.
In 1989, when John’s brother Jimmy and Smooth Roose (Lead Guitar, Mandolin,
Banjo) gave a 10 year old John D. Hale a worn out cassette tape of “No Kinda
Dancer” by Robert Earl Keen, Jr., no one would have guessed it would change
their lives. Too young to actually grasp the deep songwriting of the album, John
still recognized that it was something different from the big country stars of
that time and was something that was real and hell his big brother Jimmy and
buddy Smooth loved it, so it had to be cool, right? Fifteen years later marked
the beginning of the John D. Hale Band. John along with Smooth Roose, John’s
nephew Cody Phillips (Bass), Jay Cagle (Drums), and recent addition of Chris
Brotherton (Guitar, Drums), set out to do things their own way and play and
record music the way that it’s supposed to be done - real and honest .
The release of the JDHB’s debut album “One Of A Kind” in March of ‘06 grabbed
the attention of people worldwide getting radio airplay all over Europe,
Australia, Canada, and the U.S. That along with the growing popularity of
satellite radio has taken this little Missouri band a long way. “One Of A Kind”
ended the year being the 17 album out of the top 50 albums of 2006 on XM Radio’s
Channel 12 X-Country. Seeing your name on the same chart as your heroes that you
grew up listening to is great. The JDHB takes the most pride in putting on one
of the best live shows you’ll ever see. They have had the opportunity to share
stages with some of the best touring acts around including Texas icon turned
country music superstar Jack Ingram, outlaw legend David Allan Coe, Texas
country rockers Reckless Kelly, Red Dirt mavericks Jason Boland and the
Stragglers and many more. Trying to pigeonhole the sound of a live JDHB show is
next to impossible - its everything from straight forward bluegrass to straight
up rock ‘n roll and everything in between. Be on the lookout for the early
spring release of “Live at the Snorty Horse Saloon”, the bands first live album,
which is guaranteed to make anybody feel at home in a smoky ‘ol bar.
Take an 8 state banjo champion (Smooth); an ex-radio DJ turned singer/songwriter
and all around great musician (Chris); a drummer who grew up around a Dad who
played for Marty Robbins and a Grandfather who played with Bob Wills (Jay); a 19
year kid who can cowboy with the best of ‘em and learned how to play the bass in
a week to get us out of pinch (Cody); and a songwriter that grew up on an exotic
animal ranch who tries his damnedest to write songs that are real and songs that
are honest as the day is long (John); and you have the cast of “misfits” that
make up the John D. Hale Band. Not the prettiest group of guys in the world, not
the most talented, but a group that puts more heart and soul into music than
anyone else. It is a given that the John D. Hale Band will be around for a long
time preaching their brand of country music to anyone who will listen.