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FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 2009
SKYROCKET! DANCE PARTY AT THE DOUBLE WIDE
DOORS AT 10 PM
SHOW AT 10:30 PM UNTIL 1:30 AM
TICKETS $7 AT THE DOOR
www.double-wide.com

3510 Commerce St
Dallas, TX 75226
(214) 887-6510

SKYROCKET! is a wickedly original cover band from Austin, TX that performs a cabaret of Solid Gold-era classics from the ‘70s and ‘80s.  In a city where original music rules, Skyrocket! dares to mix both, performing forgotten radio hits with a creative cast of some of Austin’s finest career musicians (Trish and Darin Murphy, Johnny Goudie, Benjamin Hotchkiss, and The Real Heroes).

Throwing a wrench into the “too cool for school” Austin music scene could only be attempted by its own — a group of recording artists with diverse backgrounds from Americana to Brit-pop to glam. Discovering a common craze for the shamelessly dated but well-crafted songs of the AM-radio “solid gold” era, seven well-known musicians and songwriters united spontaneously in 2004 to form Skyrocket! What started as a lark soon caught on with music lovers and music critics alike. Michael Merschel of the Dallas Morning News wrote that the band is “so good it actually made people feel cool about standing around and listening to covers of the Bee Gees, ABBA and Kiss.”

“What started as a goof among friends has certainly grown,” writes Chris Gray of the Austin Chronicle, “ but hasn’t really changed; it’s still a bunch of friends, who happen to be some of Austin’s most talented musicians, getting together to jam on songs they all grew up on. The songs may be other people’s, but what makes Skyrocket! so delicious is that they do them with a style all their own.” Meticulously cherry-picked, studied and performed, the songs come back to life with an eerie soundalike precision that still takes a back seat to the fun factor. The band does it all with glee, and their energy is infectious.

Members of Skyrocket! juggle their solo careers with the band’s expanding performance schedule.

Hi-res photos available on request.

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Catch two creative souls on Thursday, Feb. 12, 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the Bar Belmont, 901 Fort Worth Avenue at Sylvan in Oak Cliff.   Singer/songwriter Trish Murphy will join Dallas-based author Melanie Wells for a night of songs, stories and hand-made sweets.  Admission is free.  Call  (877) 476-3378 for more information.

Recording artist Trish Murphy officially launched her music career after receiving a B.A. in philosophy from the University of Dallas, in Irving, and quitting her college job at The Wall Street Journal. Critically esteemed as a gender-defying songwriter who “stands toe to toe with the boys and rocks just as hard as they do,” her discography includes four solo albums, three of which she released on her own label. She tours the U.S. and Europe, and the annual all-female Lilith Fair tour was a career highlight in the late 1990s. Her songs have also been recorded by fellow Texan Pat Green and CMT favorites Cross Canadian Ragweed. http://www.trishmurphy.com

Melanie Wells began her writing career by telling lies on the playground.  A licensed psychotherapist and licensed marriage and family therapist and accomplished fiddle player (no, really – she went to SMU on a music scholarship), she is the author of the critically acclaimed Day of Evil series: When the Day of Evil Comes, The Soul Hunter, and My Soul to Keep.  Melanie holds two masters degrees and is the founder and director of LifeWorks counseling associates, a collaborative, creative community of psychotherapists (www.wefixbrains.com).  She lives in Dallas with her dog, Gunner, who wishes she would not spend so much time at her computer. http://www.melaniewells.com