Jacob Davich is known to many for his roles in various Hollywood movies such as The Aviator, where he played a young Leonardo DiCaprio, and The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lava Girl, but all the while he was acting, Jacob felt the pull of music. He immersed himself in piano and guitar and eventually decided to follow his passion and pursue music full-time. Recently, he released his debut  song, "My Father's Gun" and  kindly called to talk about his roots,  the song, and more.

You’ve been acting since you were a boy, but being that your Father was a composer, was music something that was always there for you or something that you recently became interested in?
Growing up around a working composer was really cool. My dad had a studio behind our house, so it was normal for me to walk to the studio, hang out, and watch the musicians do their thing. My Dad had me take piano lessons as a kid and as I got older, around 8th or 9th grade, I started playing the guitar. Before I picked up the guitar though, I randomly got my first commercial [for iTunes]. I was literally on the street and two girls were interviewing for a commercial; I rapped an Eminem song and I guess a little boy rapping Eminem was cute because I got the commercial. After that, I was spotted by Martin Scorsese or Leo DiCaprio and was cast as a young Leo in The Aviator. I continued acting, but was always playing the guitar and listening to various types of music like Rap and Classic Rock. In fact, the first two songs on my iPod were “Welcome to Atlanta” by Ludacris and Don McLean’s “American Pie” - that’s where my head was (laughing). Later, I got into James Taylor, whose finger picking style and chord formations I really liked. I had great guitar teaches, but if I wanted to learn something I was the meticulous nerd who looked up videos on YouTube and learned a song note for note until I could play it properly. Doing it that way increased my knowledge base and gave me a wide breath of songs I could play. I ate it [playing guitar] up, stayed with it, and over time music became more important than acting and I felt like I had no choice but to pursue it.

Shinyribs delivers a cure for what ails you on their exuberant fourth release, I Got Your Medicine. Tracked at the legendary Sugar Hill Recording Studios, the album unites humor, heart, and soul on a funktastic twelve track collection that will free you from your cares, touch your heart (and funny bone), move your body...and leave you with a huge grin on your face. Front man, lyricist, and multi-instrumentalist Kevin Russell graciously took the time to chat in depth about the album, which releases on February 24th,  and much more.

I Got Your Medicine is such an appropriate title for the album. It really is musical medicine for the soul. Why did you choose I Got Your Medicine, which is also a track on the album, as the title of the project?
Using it as the album title was Jimbo’s [Mathus, who co-produced the album] suggestion, he thought it was a great lead and title track and I agreed with him. “I Got Your Medicine” is my attempt at writing an Allan Toussaint song; it puts forth that New Orleans R & B groove, and really ties everything about the album together. Lyrically it works with all the other songs too, which is something I didn’t hear at first, but once Jimbo said that to me, I thought about it and listened to it with that in mind. You know, I’ve arranged and produced myself before, but I found that with Jimbo, I had someone who helped me make objective decisions because I tend to let my imagination wander and overthink things too much at times.

 With his previous singles, “Women, Water, And Beer” and “When The Fish Didn’t Bite” receiving critical praise, singer-songwriter Travis Rice recently released his new song, “Don’t Waste The Rain.” The tune, a romantic ballad, showcases a different side of the singer and demonstrates his  versatility as both a writer and performer. Shortly after its release, Rice kindly called to speak about the new single, its video, and more.

On January 13th, you released your new single, “Don’t Waste The Rain.” Did you write the song and can you tell the story behind it?
I wrote the song a couple of years ago and finally had the chance to record it last Fall. As far as the premise of the songs goes, well, if you’ve heard it, it’s pretty self-explanatory. My girl had to go to work on a stormy, rainy day and I’m trying to persuade her to come back home, get into bed, and enjoy one another’s company. You always hear the cliché of people saying not to waste the pretty, sunshine filled days and this song is the flip side of that where sometimes the time best spent is the time when you’re doing nothing and there are no distractions - you just have time to really soak  each other in and not waste a moment.

In 2008, singer-songwriter Todd Deatherage moved to Austin looking to form a band that played his favorite traditional country songs. Todd collaborated with his co-worker at the Allegro School of Music, Derek Tarnow and together they performed at local venues, eventually adding Matt Winegardner on drums, Derek’s wife Loren on backing vocals, and Phil Spencer on upright bass. The Merles quickly garnered a local following and are now preparing to release their debut album Hate To Say Goodbye on February 10th. In advance of the release front man Deatherage kindly took some time to talk about the band’s roots, the album, and more.

Even though the band may be new to many, The Merles have been together for quite a few years now.
The Merles began in 2005, so it’s been a long journey. The idea for the band actually originated when I was a singer-songwriter living in Brooklyn performing more in an Americana/Rock/Pop style. In addition to performing my solo music, I formed The Merles with friends as a side project where we busked at Prospect Park and Grand Army Plaza. Eventually, I moved to Austin and put a band together using the same name and now, we’ve grown and evolved to the place we’re at - preparing to release our debut album.

As the band evolved, did your sound as well or did that remain constant from Brooklyn to Austin?
I grew up in Dallas and country was always there but I didn’t really like it. I had a friend in high school who went on to be in a band called 1100 Springs and he introduced me to the rockabilly country stuff and I really fell in love with it.  As for The Merles, we always had that same traditional sound with mainly a brush on the snare and upright bass. And although we started out as more of a cover band, we now have original songs, which has been a fun progression.