Special thanks to our presenting sponsor: 

VENUE: RAILYARD PLAZA

SHINYRIBS

Sometimes Shinyribs is a sprawling multi-piece ensemble slapping the air until it grooves; sometimes, he’s a somber, subtle songwriter pouring poetry on the ground from a cup half full. Either way, it’s always the house-party-meets-library that is Kevin Russell. 

Raised in Beaumont, TX, and Shreveport, LA—the cradle of swamp pop, Leadbelly, and bayou R&B—ShinyRibs distills those regional sounds into something both timeless and immediate. Think Texas Gulf Coast meets Muscle Shoals, songs carved and weaved by hand with a storyteller’s heart. 

Shinyribs evolved from a solo residency Russell began under that moniker in the mid-2000s, after an incident in a Houston club, playing a private party for a group of welders where he bought a homeless woman a plate of ribs. “Her name was Roberta,” says Russell. “She was a high priestess of transistor radios and an almost forgotten music she called ‘Chilibump.’ For that plate of Ribs that night she gave me in return a name, Shinyribs and a road map to the mysterious big thicket sounds I had only heard of from old timers and time travelers.”

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THANKS TO THEIR SUPPORT, WE'RE HOSTING 50+ FREE EVENTS THIS SUMMER.