By Tom Geddie
The name blacktopGYPSY says something, as any good band name should, something about the people in it. Black top is what the back roads are made of; a gypsy, in this example, is someone who travels a lot and makes music. The way the words are put together is a bit of whimsy, as are the black tops Heather Stalling and Andie Kay Joyner usually wear on stage.
The music itself is mostly serious, coming out of Heather and Andie Kay’s small-town country, bluegrass, and folk influences and the incubator of too many youthful opries to count combined with the eventual experiences of adulthood.
The choice of the name blacktopGYPSY came down to a coin flip with another prospective name – no, they won’t say what that second option was – from a long list of possibilities.
“I think that it fit us,” Andie Kay said. “We’re always like gypsies on the back roads, packing up and heading out of town.”
“We try to play every weekend,” Heather said. “Sometimes we do four shows, sometimes, two, and sometimes none.”
The band’s two principals are East Texas to the heart.
Heather’s family moved around a lot until settling in Bullard when she was in sixth grade in 1982. She still has a home in Bullard and one in Dallas with husband and singer-songwriter Max Stalling.
Music was present from the beginning.
“Mom’s an editor and dad’s a scientist. They also sing folk music like Joan Baez and Gordon Lightfoot,” Heather said.
“When I was about three, I saw some kids on TV playing violins and I wanted to do that.”
Her parents rented her a fiddle and, once they were sure she was serious about the music, bought her one when she was four. By age seven, she was competing in fiddling contests and won so many, Max joked, that contest officials said she couldn’t enter anymore.
“That’s not true,” Heather said, acknowledging that she won lots of trophies.
It is true that fiddle practice came first, ahead of teenage parties and prom dates who had to wait in the living room until lessons were done. And, as a young teenager, she and fellow fiddle contestant Allison Krauss hung out together and were pen pals.
Heather began playing professionally at age 14 and moved to Branson, Missouri, to play for two years with the Texas Goldminors (with the “o,” since all of the band members were young).
Andie Kay was born in Dallas but got to her parents’ Edgewood home in a couple of days.
“I grew up with bluegrass,” she said.
The family sometimes traveled with the Stone Mountain Bluegrass Band, and Andie Kay sang. She also went to the annual bluegrass festival in Canton every year, among others. Jamming after – and before and between—shows was “a big thing.”
Heather and Andie Kay have been friends since they were 14 or 15, first meeting at the old Kaufman Country Opry. Once Heather moved back to Texas from Branson, they played separately and together in several Texas bands including with Ed Burleson, Mark David Manders, Tommy Alverson, Bob Schneider, Johnny Lee, and others before finally going out on their own.
They spent a nearly year-long Tuesday night residency at the popular, funky Adair’s in Dallas’ Deep Ellum neighborhood blending their own skills.
“We wanted to do things our own way,” Andie said. “We had done lots of late-night writing and jamming, and got enough of our own songs together to make a self-titled CD in 2005 and 2006 that we released in 2006. (The band has songs together for a second album that they hope to release in 2010.)
Today, the band is three women and three men: Heather on fiddle, guitar, and vocals; Andie Kay on vocals and guitar; Heather’s sister Darcy on back-up vocals; Jay New on bass; Phillip Cordon on drums; and Sam Swank and Jon Wallace pretty much alternating on lead guitar.
The music comes from a base of the small-town country, folk, and bluegrass roots. It also includes, as much music does, some blues influence and ranges through a variety of other influences from Merle Haggard to Fleetwood Mac, from Patsy Cline and Tammy Wynette to Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and George Jones to Shelby Lynne, Emmylou Harris, Sheryl Crow, Bonnie Raitt, kd lang, and more.
Yes, there may even be some gypsy influence.
“It’s our music,” Heather said, with the emphasis on “our.” “We don’t want to nail down a genre.”
“We love what everybody else our age doesn’t,” Heather said.
Music – generally not the most lucrative of professions – is a full-time job for both women.
Neither can imagine doing anything else for a living.
“We don’t have a lot of material stuff, but we get by. Music chose us,” said Andie Kay. “Heather and I like each other and had common interests right from the start. I can’t even write with anybody else.”
“She’s like family,” Heather said.
They enjoy the “gypsy” traveling, but would also like to play more close to home.
“I wish there was more music in East Texas, more places to play like Moore’s Store in Ben Wheeler and Crossroads Music Company in Winnsboro,” Heather said one night in December before Max’s show at the new venue. “There are tons of great musicians in East Texas, but not enough listening venues for original artists.”
blacktopGYPSY, knowing there are many more back roads and good times ahead, is scheduled to play at Moore’s Store in Ben Wheeler from 7-10 p.m. on January 16.For more information, call 903.833.5100.
