Kevin Russell with special guest Alice & The Lion

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Kevin Russell is the frontman and multi-instrumentalist of the award-winning Austin-based 8-piece Swamp-Pop-Soul supergroup, Shinyribs, and former member of the cult-favorite, The Gourds. A Beaumont, Texas native, Russell is a natural observer and wordsmith – drawing from the Gulf Coast hotbeds of roots music to craft his clever songwriting and on-stage antics to create an ethereal entertainment experience. -- Alice Spencer I come from a family of teachers, musicians, and artists. Everyone played piano, there were lots of horns and homemade instruments lying around, and if no one was playing music, the reel-to-reel or the turntable was going. Zappa, Bartok, Ellington, The Beatles, Billie Holliday, Jacques Brel, or maybe just the audio from an episode of All In The Family that my father had recorded on his Wollensak. It was a very free and creative environment for a kid. I was really into musical theater and I loved to sing and dance. I thought I’d pursue acting but at 18 while in theater school in St. Louis, I joined my first band, Three Merry Widows. I’d found my calling. I dropped out, we got a record deal, and began touring; me and a bunch of guys in a 15 passenger van. We were best friends and we wrote together effortlessly. The Widows enjoyed college chart success and had a loyal regional following, but disbanded when the label didn’t hear a single in the demos for what would have been our second album. At the time, I had already begun singing with another St. Louis band, The Geyer Street Sheiks, a 7 piece string band with a rich regional history and a varied repertoire that included jazz, blues, and old time music. After releasing 3 critically acclaimed albums with The Sheiks, I returned home to Austin, Texas to be closer to my family. For the next several years I worked in original music projects (The Barkers, Victrola), performed with jazz bands (The Oxblood Melodians, Alice Spencer and Her Monkey Butlers, Floyd Domino’s All Stars, and Slim Richey’s Dream Band), toured as Patsy Cline in the musical, Always, Patsy Cline, and began working as a voiceover artist for commercials and video games. When my first daughter, Beatrice, was born I took a 7 year hiatus and during that time I had another daughter, Amelia. When they reached school age, they began to encourage me to return to performing. Maybe they were just sick of hearing me sing around the house, who knows. Around that time I got an offer to join Austin’s beloved band, Shinyribs, and when I wasn’t on the road with those guys, I performed my original music, with Brian Beattie (Glass Eye) and Dony Wynn (Robert Palmer, Brooks & Dunn). After nearly 9 years of rigorous touring and a bucket list appearance on Austin City Limits, I left Shinyribs to pursue other projects and to devote more time to my original music. I co-wrote and co-produced an album with Jon Langford (Mekons, Waco Brothers) in 2024 for his band, The Bright Shiners. I currently perform my songs accompanied by Brian Beattie on bass, and sing with the inimitable Seth James Band, as well as taking jazz gigs here and there. I live with my daughters and our cat, Oscar and I’m proud to call Austin my home.

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