Birminghams to perform at Crawfish Festival
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By Jessica Coleman
Staff Writer
Jarrod Birmingham loves small towns – the friendliness of the people, the sense of close-knit community, and the Americana feel in the air in towns with three-and four-digit populations. It’s a love he can’t give a reason for, but owns nonetheless.
The singer/songwriter is a long time resident of Inez, and filmed his music video, December Gone from his 2010 album Jesus and Johnny Cash at the Ganado Cinema. He said he doesn’t know why he has a soft spot for Ganado in particular, but he does.
“I can’t even tell you why,” said Birmingham, “I really don’t know.”
He has brought his honky-tonk sound to Rear Window Listening Room in Ganado multiple times, and has a fascination with the Cinema.
“I fell in love with the theater. I love the man who runs it. He is so passionate about movies, he is amazing. I know the mayor, the police. My son plays select baseball for a Ganado team. Ganado is a special little town.”
He went on to share memories of playing at the KJT Hall, and what it meant to him.
“That’s where people used to meet each other,” he said, “That’s where your influences came from. That’s why you had community centers. Influence used to come from your community in little places like that, and now we get it from the Kardashians. I’m not saying that’s bad or good, but it’s true.”
It is easy to see why Birmingham was eager to play in the little town he loves. With a new album on the horizon, Birmingham will headline the Ganado Volunteer Fire Department’s annual Crawfish Festival on Saturday, April 30. His wife, Jennifer, with whom he just celebrated an anniversary, will join him and open the show.
“She puts on a great show,” he said “It’s a lot different from mine. Sometimes she’ll just burst into a Beatles song in the middle of the show.”
The Crawfish Festival is the Ganado Volunteer Fire Department’s largest fundraiser of the year, and Birmingham is happy to be part of it. He enjoys playing outdoor festivals. As a husband and father, he understands the value of being able to expose the whole family to live, original music.
“Bars and listening rooms are great. I love them, but when you play festivals like this, the kids can come. I think it’s really cool. It’s a family thing.”
The performance comes just before the release of his album, which he said will be different than anything he has done in the past.
His upcoming album allowed him far more creative control than he’s had in the past, and the result was a record that tells an entire story, start to finish. It isn’t an album one can put on shuffle or listen to one or two songs on and be done.
“This album, we put in order of events,” he said, “through the addictions, the divorces, the meeting someone new – it’s all kind of made like that. It wasn’t made for an iTunes 99-cent single. If you don’t listen to all of it, you’re missing out. I had my choice this time. I didn’t have anyone pushing me telling me ‘You’ve got to have this. You have to have a radio single, and you have to have that.’”
Birmingham said he hopes to have the record out by June, when a star bearing his name will be placed on the South Texas Music Walk of Fame in Corpus Christi.
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