As an avid KUTX listener, there’s a good chance you’ve heard us play some Shinyribs tunes. And who can blame us? Shinyribs makes music that’s a mix of funky roots music and with country soul, and it’s pretty dang great. Shinyribs is more like an alter-ego than a side project of Kevin Russell, from beloved Austin band The Gourds. Russell began playing a hybrid of loud country rock and psychedelic blues in the biker bars of Louisiana when he was 17, and he eventually formed The Gourds in the late 90s. He wrote so many songs that he felt that The Gourds albums didn’t have enough room for them. Enter Shinyribs. Russell describes himself as a “psycholiteranaut w/8 AA batteries-tweed facade-equal parts Waylon Jennings, Robert Rauschenberg and Harvey Korman” on his Twitter feed, and at his live shows, he’s barefoot and wild. His most recent album Gulf Coast Museum was released to critical acclaim.
Kevin “Shinyribs” Russell was in our studio this week, and you can check it out right here! You’ll dig it.
