10 BUDDY MAY 2018

BUDDYTHE ORIGINAL TEXAS MUSIC MAGAZINE

MAY 2018VOLUME XXXXV, NUMBER 10

THE ROOTS OF YOUNG MUSICIANS ATTthe Dallas International Guitar Festival runTdeep, going all the way back to the late ’60s -a whole decade before the Dallas Guitar Show(which would later become the Dallas InternationalGuitar Festival) was founded.

On April 11-13 1968, a 3-day music and arts festival calledFlower Fair took place at DallasMarket Hall - the very venue thatthe Guitar Festival would not-so-coincidentally occupy somany years later.

On a stage in the middle ofthe hall were featured a few youngand upcoming names - SteveWinwood, Spencer Davis, MitchRyder and The Detroit Wheels,and even a young Neil Diamond.

Also in attendance was a 14-year-old Jimmy Wallace - thefuture owner of the Dallas Inter-national Guitar Festival. It wasthis event that not only inspiredWallace to fully pursue the gui-tar (he had only just picked oneup and began playing not longbefore) but the event that wouldlater give him the vision for howhe wanted to transform the Dal-las Guitar Show into a full blownturned-up-to-11 festival.

“The whole concept of wherethe show is today…the seed of itwas really planted at Flower Fair.”Wallace says.

It’s also no coincidence thenthat Flower Fair also featured astage of young localbands…something that wouldone day become a major elementof the Guitar Festival.

The show has always beenknown to attract an attendanceof budding musicians. Dallas’

own Stevie Ray Vaughan wouldattend the show regularly in hisyounger years. And at any pointin the ‘90s you might have seena young Joe Bonamassa, KennyWayne Shepard, or Zach Myers(of Shinedown) roaming theaisles or strumming on a guitarat a booth. All three of coursewent on to become huge award-winning artists and some of thebest guitar players of their gen-erations, not to mention play theGuitar Festival on numerous oc-casions.

So naturally, the formation ofa battle of the bands was a natu-ral evolution to cultivate andgrow this kind of talent fromwithin the show. In 2004, theGuitar Festival established theTexas 10 Under 20 contest, inwhich 10 bands/solo players (allunder the age of 20) would axe-off for a grand prize that in-cluded gear, studio time, and acoveted performance spot on thestage at the following year’s show.

Over the years, the competi-tion has included young Texas-based musicians that have alsobeen featured on The Voice,American Idol, Americas GotTalent and gone on to have megasuccessful musical careers, in-cluding Grammy & CMA Award-winning Arlington native andCountry superstar Maren Mor-ris.

Young Guns StageTHEN IN 2017, THE FEST-ival founded the Young GunsStage - a whole stage dedicatedto 3 days of music from the nextgeneration of solo guitar playersand Rock/Blues bands.

Jamie Malone and her hus-band David oversee the stageand help find these diamonds inthe rough from across the US.“We are bringing in top notchtalent from all over the UnitedStates.

“This stage will feature gui-tarist Christone “Kingfish”Ingram, The Peterson Brothers,Brandon “Taz” Neiderauer, ReeceMalone, Anthony “The FallbrookKid” Cullins, Jake Kershaw andmany more. These young guitarslingers are going to blow peopleaway! They perform and soundlike seasoned adults but someare as young as 14. This stage isthe future of the guitar, provingto the world the guitar is NOTdead!”

But for the Malones, theYoung Guns Stage is a familyaffair with a personal investment.Their son - 14-year-old ReeceMalone (who has been playingsince he could barely pick up aguitar at only 5-years-old) - isalso a performer on the YoungGuns Stage and has grown upattending the show.

“When I was little I alwayslooked forward to going to theGuitar Show with my dad. WhenI was 10, we played at a familyChristmas party along with TheStratoblasters & Lance Lopez.That night Jimmy invited myband Salvation From Sundownto play at the Festival for the 1sttime. That year was so cool be-cause I got invited to sit in withDerek St Holmes & BradWhitford. I also looked forwardto playing at the All Star Jams!”

In fact, he was only 10-years-old when he was invited up im-promptu to play at the famousSaturday night All Star Jam - theyoungest person to ever play onthat stage with the legendaryguitarists it brings together. Leg-end has it that he held his ownthat night.

Malone has since played withthe likes of Lance Lopez (whobecame his band’s producer andmentor), Gary Hoey, Paul Gil-bert, Doug Wimbash, and theaforementioned Derek St Holmesand Brad Whitford of Aerosmithand worked with Robben Ford,Joe Satriani, Eric Gales, AndyTimmons & Simon McBride. Hehas also played on a few othernotable stages…like Madison

Square Garden during a NewYork Knick’s halftime show, theWimBASH at the New OrleansJazz Fest, and the M3 Live NAMMafter party.

It’s guitar prodigies likeMalone and the rest of the YoungGuns performers, as well as theTexas 10 Under 20 contestants,that the Guitar Festival has be-come known to foster. The verykinds of young musicians thatare keeping the spirit of the show,the music, and the guitar itselfalive. Wallace says this stage,and more importantly these mu-sicians and what they represent,

are “the legacy of the show.”As for the Texas 10 Under 20

competition, it’s back for it’s 14thyear and bigger than ever, ex-tending the borders from Texasto all over.

Jamie Malone says “This yearwe have opened the contest upto guitarist under the age of 20from all over the United States.The talent that poured in wasoverwhelming! We are proud toannounce our top 10 finalists for2018.”

The 2018 Top 10 Finalistsinclude Asher Belsky, AnthonyCullins, Trent Cruickshank, Jake

“We are bringing in top notchtalent from all over the UnitedStates …These young guitarslingers are going to blowpeople away! They performand sound like seasoned adultsbut some are as young as 14.This stage is the future of theguitar, proving to the world theguitar is NOT dead!”

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–JAMIE MALONE

Young Guns provethe guitar is not dead.

They perform and sound like seasoned adults but some are as young as 14. This stage is the future of the guitarBy James Wallace

See these young guitar prodigies are among the other Young Guns who are the legacy of the 10 Under 20 contest:Brandon “Taz” Neiderauer and Reece Malone

Kershaw, Connor Low, GabrielMetzger, Jacob Reese Thornton,Trey Wanvig, Stratton Wilson,Carter Wilkinson

The contest will take place onthe Young Guns Stage on Sun-day, May 6 at 10 AM And theYoung Guns stage itself will fea-ture three days of non-stop mu-sic from open to close.

And if the history of the showtells us anything, it sounds likeyou won’t want to miss it…younever know what future GuitarGods you could be in the holypresence of at the Dallas Interna-tional Guitar Festival.