I arrived early and got to know some of the staff a little bit before the show and was pleasantly surprised to find out the house photographer barely remembered the Texas Pop Festival as little as I did. We agreed Sly Stone stole the show. Yea..Zep was there..Ten Years After, Nazz…

So it was like getting totally immersed in the old days and it was fantastic. I got to wander around a little backstage before the show started, reliving that well configured stage with all the backdrops, lights and curtains. Seemed like nothing, yet everything had changed, but here, rock was still king!

What made it even better was that an HMR favorite was headlining tonight. We’ve watched Somebody’s Darling for some time now and seen these 4 (now 5) musicians storm through many a set with the kind of grit and determination befitting a true rock n roll legend in the making.

Amber Farris has always led the band with her powerful, gritty, totally soul driven voice that fairly drips of the best in Southern roots that Janis herself would be proud of, if not totally envious of. I’m not sure this girl knows HOW to stop and yet makes it look so easy to go from full-tilt boogie to laid-back ballad and back again. I talked to her after the show and her voice was as clear as ever where most singers would be speechless after having given their voice a thrashing like she did.

The rest if the band was the same with Nate Weden on Drums and David Ponder on guitar. Former bassist Michael Talley had to my surprise switched over to keys, handing the bass spot over to the very capable newcomer Wade Coffer. So now with 5 in the lineup, the sound was solid and much more versatile than ever. The changes added drive, creating (in Amy’s words) a harder rock sound. I would never have thought I’d ever hear SD doing Rod Stuart’s Stay With Me, but the keys made it possible…MORE than possible even down to the odd timings. It was during this song that the 2 previous bands, Quaker City Night Hawks and Goodnight Ned were invited onstage to join in the festivities.

To say Amy and the boys tore the roof off the place would be an understatement. They not only tore the roof off, but blew out the doors and cranked it to a level you’d have to see to believe. Somebody’s Darling was on fire tonight just coming off a very successful 2 week tour of the Eastern seaboard. They were happy…tired, but happy and played a seamless hour and half set to a crowd of probably 5-600 packed into the general admission area. The sound crew and the sound system tonight were top-notch, 2nd to none.

The material was fairly evenly divided between cuts from the 1st and 2nd CDs and some new ones destined for an upcoming CD. No date for that release yet, but I’m sure we’ll manage to get our grubby hands on a copy and bring you our take on it.

I was glad I made the trip for a lot of reasons on a few different levels. Somebody’s Darling totally killed it tonight.

Cold Hands
Back to the Bottle
Come to Realize*
Weight of the Fear
Maybe
Get What You Want*
My Own Medicine
Same Record*
Keep Shakin
Vowels Flow*
Cold Hearted Lover
Pretty Faces
Pretty Leaves
Chug Chuggin
Stay With Me

Generation*
Wedding Cloths

*new songs