SEND IT SOUTH

Wilderado

When Wilderado began writing songs for their second album, Talker, the idea of chasing after their debut record’s success—including a pair of Top 10 hits on alternative radio—couldn’t have been further from their minds.

“We were coming off 265 days on the road, and we all felt a little broken,” says frontman Maxim Rainer. “We had to ask ourselves if we still wanted to do this, and we decided that the only way to rejuvenate the band was by making new music that we love. That was our only rule.”

The result is Talker, a dynamic record that finds Wilderado reframing their purpose and broadening their perspective. Recorded with producers Chad Copeland (Sufjan Stevens,SYML) and James McAllister (Gracie Abrams, The National) in Norman, Oklahoma, it’s the sound of three musicians shrugging off the allure of success and, instead, embracing the thrill of the unknown.

“This record was a process of rediscovering the things that made us excited about our band at the very beginning, back when we were writing songs for nobody but ourselves,” says Rainer, a Tulsa native who co-formed Wilderado in 2015. “When you’re a brand new band, you have no expectation of anyone else hearing you. We wanted to go back to the beginning and revisit that excitement.”

Like all of Wilderado’s releases, Talker blurs the boundaries between genres, creating a multi-sided sound — soft-hued and subdued one moment; anthemic and buoyant the next — that defies categorization. “We’ve always had an eclectic catalog and an ‘anything goes’ mentality, where the only thing that matters is the song itself,” Rainer says. Appropriately, the songs are the real stars of Talker. With “Sometimes,” Rainer pulls back the curtain to expose the skeletons in his own closet, including the coping mechanisms that most keep under wraps. “Sometimes I hide it when I’m high,” he sings in a Midwestern drawl, contrasting the vulnerability of his lyrics with bright acoustic guitars and sunny, singalong hooks. He gets personal during “Tomorrow,” too, turning a hypnotic guitar pattern from bandmate Tyler Wimpee into the launchpad for a song that tackles big topics like religion and being trapped in a search for God. “Tyler used to play that riff every night during soundcheck,” he explains. “It helped me write something I’ve always wanted to write, which is about my relationship with the Church, my experience growing up in a Christian family, and where it’s left me now. It felt very freeing to say those things. A lot of our first LP was about being on the road, and I didn’t want to regurgitate that same idea on our new album. Instead, I decided to get confessional and vulnerable.”

He got collaborative, too. In addition to writing songs with his two bandmates — guitarist Wimpee and drummer Justin Kila — Rainer also teamed up with the British band Flyte, whom Wilderado had met in London while on tour in 2022. Together, they created songs like “Longstanding Misunderstanding,” writing the track during a 25-minute burst of creation in the recording studio. “A big part of my growing process with this album was learning to ask for help, which isn’t easy for me to do,” he admits. “But it turned out so beautiful, every time I did.”

Equally beautiful were the new album’s mellower moments. “Everyone in Wilderado had fallen in love with music that was softer on our ears, and that influenced our writing,” says Rainer, who sings Talker‘s songs in an unforced voice that occasionally gives way to a gentle, high-flying falsetto. “We began asking ourselves, ‘What if we keep the drive and the groove that’s always been part of our music, but dial back the approach of both the vocals and the drums?'”

The strategy worked, filling songs like “Bad Luck,” “Tomorrow,” and the title track with a mix of laidback swagger and calm, collected energy. Talker still finds moments to get loud, too, building its way toward atmospheric crescendoes with “Waiting On You” and “After All.”

Wilderado aren’t chasing after hits. They’re just being themselves — and enjoying it. With Talker, they’ve hit a new stride, fueling themselves up on sharp songwriting and adventurous arrangements before setting off toward some new horizon. This is Wilderado at their best: inspired, invigorated, and answering to nobody but themselves.

DIRTWIRE

Dirtwire stands poised between ancient Mother Earth and modern technology, a blend of ethnomusicology and the psychedelic trance state, gut-bucket delta blues and what the band variously dubs “back-porch space cowboy blues, swamptronica, and electro-twang.” It’s a sound informed by Dirtwire’s travels and performances around the globe, where East meets West and North joins South.

From the favelas in Brazil, Femi Kuti’s Shrine in Lagos, Tokyo’s bluegrass clubs, ayahuasca ceremonies in Central America, Gamelan performances in Bali, desert festivals in the Australian Outback, and the 20th anniversary of Kazakhstan’s modernized new capital Astana, the band spreads its message by building bridges across musical cultures in their own unique way.

Dirtwire plays an array of instruments, both ancient and modern, including West African kamale ngonis, jaw harps, space fiddles, whamola basses, Rickenbacher electric 12-string guitars, bowed Banjos, and mouth harps from around the globe, all interwoven into modern laptop beat creation. Hailing from the underground West Coast electronic bass music scene, Dirtwire finds itself at the forefront of experimental electronic music production, mixing in their wide array of world instruments with sampled beats and 808s. Dirtwire’s live shows are a communal psychedelic journey, ranging from down-home boot stomping get-downs to bass and blues electronic mashups to ethereal cinematic beat-driven soundscapes. Woven into each is the exploration of where live instruments meet computer production, and where tradition meets experimentation.

Stepmom

stepmom is an orchestral dream punk / art punk band from Oklahoma City. With dreamy harmonies, ambient cello, and synth contrasted with angsty guitar riffs and powerful lead vocals, stepmom represents the feeling of disillusionment among many who are trying to survive in late-stage capitalism.

stepmom is the creative brainchild of lead singer/guitarist Lindsey Cox, with musical collaborators Cheyenne McCoy on bass/cello, Amie Reardon on drums/oboe, and Bailey Pelletier on keys/synth.

stepmom lives in the ethereal musical realm, but it also bleeds into the physical realm in the form of collage art, stop motion, stage props, costume design, backup dancers, and now the Profitopia Immersive Art Experience! No matter how the art is expressed, stepmom dissects and critiques patriarchal and capitalist ideas of femininity, productivity, and consumerism while promoting community and activism.

Bonnie Montgomery

Bonnie Montgomery is a creative nomad, lauded as enthusiastically for her polished parlor songs as she is for her lawless country barnburners — or for the classical opera arias she’s penned at the piano.

With roots in White County, Arkansas and a firm foothold on forward-thinking audiences in Texas and around the world, Montgomery is armed with a poet’s phrasing, a soprano’s crystalline timbre, and a revolutionary’s spirit, and her repertoire ranges wherever it damn well pleases — from high romantic ballads swaddled in violins to fiery anthems of dissent to spaghetti western-inspired vignettes.

Dale Watson called her “a sophisticated badass who was born to sing.” Counterpunch Magazine hailed her operatic compositions as “white trash arias, soaked in alcohol and sex.”

Her 2016 short-length opera about Bill Clinton’s youth in Hot Springs has earned accolades from The New Yorker and Huffington Post, and her second full-length album, Forever, drew praise from Paste magazine for its “timeless songwriting.” Montgomery secured the title of 2020 Entertainer of the Year with the Arkansas Country Music Awards, ACMA 2019 Americana/Roots Artist of the Year, the title of Outlaw Female at the 2016 Ameripolitan Awards, and the titles of Best Americana Artist and Best Female Vocalist at the 2018 Arkansas Country Music Awards.

As a classical composer, her opera, Billy Blythe, about the teenage years of Bill Clinton growing up in Arkansas, took the classical world by storm, getting worldwide coverage from dozens of networks and news sources from the BBC to CNN. The opera had its world premiere at Opera Ithaca after developmental workshop performances in Arkansas and New York City and has gone on to be performed by opera companies and colleges and universities around the country.

Her vocal work for two voices, piano, and steel guitar, “Song Beyond Words: A Vocalise,” was commissioned for Carnegie Hall in 2019 and has gone on to be recorded and released as a music video that has played film festivals around the world. It is featured on the virtual album CALL OUT, a celebration of female composers originally scheduled for Carnegie Hall by celebrated Broadway and Metropolitan Opera star Zachary James. The composition is the first to use steel guitar in an operatic medium.

Montgomery has supported major acts in the US and abroad, including The Gossip, Billy Jo Shaver, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Ramblin Jack Elliot, Hayes Carll, Sturgill Simpson, Chris Stapleton, Shovels and Rope, Joe Ely, and many more.

And, with two singles produced by rockabilly legend Rosie Flores with debuts on Sirius XM’s Outlaw Country, and a touring collaboration with Texas troubadour Ray Wylie Hubbard in her rearview mirror, Montgomery’s leaving little doubt that she’s a master in the making — a charismatic collaborator, a commanding bandleader and a prolific, sensitive conduit for big ideas about beauty, defiance and power.

With a new album ready for release and a new catalogue of classical music soon to be premiered, Montgomery continues on—with effortless diversity—to pioneer a modern, post-genre world, while staying firmly grounded in the New South.

Tris10

DJ based in Northwest Arkansas and co-creator of the vinyl collective ‘Wax Mixtures’. Catch Tris10 on Bentonville Community Radio 103.3 FM every Sunday from 2–4 PM for ‘Tris10 Mixes’, where you’ll hear everything from disco to electro. Tris10 is also the artist behind two tracks, ‘Bring It Close’ and ‘Disco Inferno (Bootleg)’, signed with Fantastic Voyage Record Label.

2Wheels Productions

2Wheels Productions is a local NWA event audio productions company that provides accessible, quality, reliable audio and support to elevate your event experience, anywhere. Run by NWA locals Scott (scotty2wheels), with 20+ years in the professional audio world, and Simon (Broony), with years of DJing experience, 2Wheels Productions knows what is needed to make sure your event sounds awesome and the vibe is just right.