Cooder Graw

Playing a lively variety of Texas-style country music using a rock and roll & move swagger, self-described “loud country” group Cooder Graw had been shaped in Amarillo, Texas, in 1998. Originally referred to as Coup de Grâce, the music group shortly discovered another group had been using that name, plus they opted to change to some phonetic variant with Texas experience. The band’s first lineup highlighted Matt Martindale (vocals/acoustic electric guitar), Kelly Turner (electric guitar), Paul Baker (bass), Joe Ammons (drums), and Jim Whisenhut (pedal metal electric guitar). The people of Cooder Graw stepped in to the music biz a little later than normal; the people’ age range ranged from the later thirties through early fifties, and lead vocalist and main songwriter Martindale was the helper district lawyer of Gray State, Texas before departing to go after music full-time. Cooder Graw quickly gained a loyal regional fan base plus they had been named “Greatest New Music group of the entire year” by Dallas radio place KLIF, and earned “Music group of the entire year” and “New Musician of the entire year” honors through the Americana music internet site Rockzillaworld, which resulted in opening displays for such renowned nation performers as Willie Nelson and Alabama. 2000 noticed the music group discharge their self-titled debut, made by Ray Benson (an associate of fellow nation outfit Asleep on the Steering wheel) and Hayden Nicholas (a guitarist and songwriter who penned nine chart-topping strikes for Clint Dark). In January of 2001, Cooder Graw released the 13-monitor live record Segundo, which blended previously unrecorded music with renditions of favorites off their debut, and by the finish of the entire year, they’d released a brand new studio set, Moving Gears. Another concert arranged, Live at Billy Bob’s Tx, was released in 2002, and 2004 noticed the music group release another studio room album, AWAKEN. In 2006, the hard-working Cooder Graw announced these were splitting up, and they positioned a farewell concert in Fort Well worth on New Year’s Eve. Martindale pursued a low-key single career, however in 2012, Cooder Graw booked a well-received reunion tour, and quickly the group was back business with a fresh lineup, featuring initial users Martindale, Baker, and Turner, and fresh recruits Carmen Acciaioli (fiddle and mandolin), Danny Crelin (pedal metal acoustic guitar), and Kelly Check (drums). In 2016, the brand new Cooder Graw released a six-song EP, Want to Live By, which presented two singles that fared well in Tx, “Center of SPLITTING UP” as well as the title tune.