In The Round With Dylan, Turk, Morry, Johnny... and Franky

What fun!

The Songwriters "In The Round"

Dylan Altman

It was a joy to see Dylan Altman for the first time. Though he didn't seem to have too much in common with the others -- kind of doing his own thing, and he's probably had the most "hits" on the radio to date.

Two of the hits that he played tonight were:

• "Watch The Wind Blow By" -- a #1 hit on Tim McGraw's album with the Dancehall Doctors
  
• "Baby I'm Home" on Trace Adkins' latest album, Songs About Me
  

And we were thrilled that he turned out to be another songwriter who can actually sing too (...a rarity). We enjoyed watching AND listening to Dylan. We'll definitely keep our eye out for more from him.

"Turk" (because he was born on Thanksgiving Day) and his friend Morry
Turk and Morry write a lot of their songs together. Turk's songs have a Celtic flair to them -- very upbeat and snappy.

Plus, we have something in common: HIS name is "turk", and WE drink a lot of "turk"... So there you have it.

Morry Trent's songs are all a reflection of his personal life. Jim even commented that his style resembled that of Bob Dylan, in a sense.

Johnny Reid
Finally, the one... the only... Johnny Reid!

This, my friends, is a CLASS ACT. For real. You could tell from the first moment he opened up his mouth, the audience was completely CAPTIVATED by him.

Yeah, there's that thick Scottish accent which I'm sure a lot of folks were diggin'. And yeah, every girl in the place was taken by his charm (including the 60-something woman to our left who kept oogling and commenting, "Oooh, he's so cute!"). But it was more than that... MUCH more.

This guy can SING! His voice is crisp and strong at any octave. He can carry a note (in virtually any key) much LONGER than most. He gets completely lost within each song as he sings it... and you can't help but become completely entranced by both his energy AND his words.

The best part to me: He writes everything he sings! Now that's talent... a bonifide singer AND songwriter.

I'm telling you. WE may have just discovered Johnny Reid recently, but the music fans in Scotland and Canada will tell ya... This guy's the real deal. He's already a mega-star over there. And now he's bringin' it to the States.

I, for one, am glad that he's here. And, I guarantee that after you hear him, you will be too.

---> Check out Johnny Reid's album "Born to Roll".
---> And for a taste of his music, check out the audio clips for each of the songs on his "Born To Roll" album.
---> Check out this full-length video for the song "You Still Own Me"!

Franky Perez
Oh, and I can't end without commenting on another songwriter (from Las Vegas) that Johnny introduced at the end of the show: Franky Perez.

They met a few weeks ago. Wrote three songs together the other night. Then, Johnny invited him to sing one of his own songs here "in the round". It was called "She's Somebody's Someone" and it was AWESOME!

I'd say Franky Perez is another one to watch for...

A Good Time Was Had By All
In the end, we definitely got our money's worth (the early shows at the Bluebird are always FREE :o)... We had a GREAT time, and found a couple more songwriters to keep our eye on!

UPDATE: Turns out, Franky's been around the block a few times himself. He's pretty BIG already, and he's got quite a following.
---> Here's Franky's bio... very interesting!
---> Here's a sampler of Franky's music. (It's NOT "Country".)