Cindy-Jo is keeping it real and keeping it classy

I had one of the best conversations with artist Cindy-Jo from Dirt Road Dixie recently and couldn’t wait to share some of her upcoming plans.

Cindy-Jo is from a musical family, her mom, who is also Cindy, Grandpa Joe and brother are all singers, and Cindy-Jo, being the youngest of four children, gained a lot of their influences as a young child. She grew up listening to her mom’s favorite artists like Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, and Amy Grant and danced around singing their songs and copying Shania Twain’s wardrobe as a young girl. She participated in talent shows and dreamed of having her own band while in elementary school and naming it Dirt Road Dixie, the Dixie Chicks were a popular band at the time, no doubt. Her dad solidified that name after her American Idol performance. It has been the perfect name for a female country singer’s band who lives on a dirt road. As time has moved on, that is one of the changes that is coming for Cindy-Jo. She started as Dirt Road Dixie, then Cindy-Jo with Dirt Road Dixie, and now she will be dropping the title Dirt Road Dixie and will be performing as Cindy-Jo Music.

Cindy-Jo has auditioned on three singing competition shows, starting with America’s Got Talent in 2012, stumbling upon the audition location on her way to an Ice Show in the Twin Cities. After a few years of working on her singing talent, she auditioned on American Idol, which brought her a lot of publicity in 2015. She was voted through by Keith Urban and Harry Connick Jr. but got a no from Jennifer Lopez. Cindy-Jo sang a Carrie Underwood song on her original audition and ended up with a golden ticket singing Leann Rimes’s song Blue. The extensive process of auditioning sounded brutal to me, traveling back and forth to Burbank, sleeping on the floor of the convention center waiting her turn. After exiting the show, she played around 250 shows a year. Constantly living with a suitcase in her car running to play shows after a full day of teaching Pre-K/Kindergarten classes.

In 2017, she auditioned for The Voice and again in 2021 but gave up her spot on the show, she was pregnant with her youngest, and knowing how intense the auditioning process would become, it didn’t seem like a way to spend her pregnancy.

Since those auditioning days, she has decided to slow down to focus on the quality of shows instead of quantity. Family-friendly atmospheres have become more important, and her family is always in attendance, she rocked her youngest child to sleep while singing to the audience on stage most of the summer.

It is a perspective change for her to switch from being a "performer that is a mom" to now a "mom that is a performer" and loves the joy that it is bringing. It will keep her from the typical burnout of overperforming and wearing out her voice as well. One of the perks of being an independent artist is that she can manage her schedule. Cindy-Jo is participating in a fundraiser for a local teacher who was nominated for teacher of the year, which will help with the costs of the travel for her participation in the National Teacher of the Year contest. She schedules herself out two weeks before Christmas to do pop-up shows in the community leading up to Christmas. In the past, they have played in the parking lot while a Salvation Army bell ringer is ringing at Cub Foods and also popped up at a nativity scene to do some caroling.

On stage, Cindy-Jo sings mostly cover songs from classic and traditional country artists. She has supported the classic country style and works to maintain the value and positive influence of that style of country music. She is currently recording cover videos and those are coming in November, next is a fresh photo shoot soon leading into Cindy-Jo recording and releasing original music. Her first song is ready and will be released after the first of the year. Cindy-Jo and her brother Kaleb Heart (Iron Horse) are working on a secret project for the 80s and 90s country fans with a large backup band, fiddle, and steel guitar. I can't wait to hear more about that!

I really appreciate you, Cindy- Jo taking time out of your day to chat with me about your life and music, especially now that we have become best friends.

Rose

catching up with one artist at a time, in a country minute

Cindy-Jo Music

Cindy-Jo

Cindy-Jo

Cindy-Jo by Getty Images

photos by Cindy and Jake

*American Idol pic - (watermarked) by Getty Images

When Mankato turns into Dallas for a night

A friend of mine and I took a little road trip to attend the Cody Johnson and Friends tour in Mankato at the Mankato Event Center. Corey Kent, a “new artist” opened the show. He sang his set list with great confidence and stage presence. I have that in quotes because he isn’t new by music standards, he is new to much of the public. He was a contestant on The Voice in 2016 and did well on the show. He has had a few album releases, one in 2020, and another in 2021 and a number of singles have released, with a lot of attention on Wild as Her with over 41 million spins on Spotify and two and a half million monthly listeners, he’s getting some recognition. I hope we see and hear more of him. It’s exciting to see him on a big tour lineup.

This was the third time I have seen Randy Houser in a concert. His vocals are almost ridiculous, such amazing talent. He has a fabulous range, never mind the power of his voice, the tone and song lyrics. If you haven’t seen him live, go. Without a doubt, you’ll be blown away at his vocal abilities and crowd interaction. His voice echoed flawlessly through this event center. He sang all his hits and of course his newest single release Note to Self. Every song is so well known, the crowd was well engaged, singing every word. Background stories to the songs always intrigue me and Randy shared a few stories including the background of Like a Cowboy which he wrote after visiting troops overseas.

Now we must talk about Cody Johnson. He is another powerhouse singer, seriously, wow! I have been listening to Cody for a long time, his music catalogs started in 2009 with Six String One Dream. He has been in the Texas country music scene for what seems like forever. He is well dressed on stage in his button-down dress shirt and cowboy hat, boots, and starched blue jeans. His passion for music is a shining light for the stage. He talked about his previous rodeo experiences and noted a documentary that I have in my queue to watch. His energy was amazing, his values and patriotism is bold and unapologetic. He is passionate about his faith in God and his family is the center of much of his lyrics. It was refreshing to hear the amount of people in the crowd replying to his stories and singing back his lyrics. I felt like I was in Texas for the night with these 3 men singing on the stage for those 3 hours. It was a beautiful night. Cody’s song ‘Til You Can’t is a chart topper with over a hundred million spins on Spotify alone. Human the double album is a fabulous collection of songs for every mood, but his vocals will be what will keep you coming back.

All in all was a well worth it vacation day and little road trip.

my review, in a country minute.

Rose

Better Off with Love and Theft

I recently saw Love and Theft in East Grand Forks at Happy Harry’s Rockin’ Up North Fest where they opened for Michael Ray on the second day of the festival. I have been a fan of Love and Theft since their first album released in 2009, World Wide Open. Their self-titled second album produced the hit song Angel Eyes and Running out of Air. Following a split from their music label, Love and Theft released their 3rd album, Whiskey on my Breath in 2015 as independent artists. While waiting to release another entire larger project, they had a few singles which have often been in their set lists including Candyland, Love Wins, Gimme Tonight, You Didn’t Want Me, and Need to Breathe. You can imagine the excitement fans are feeling that after 7 years, there’s a collection released. The 6 song EP titled Better Off was released on July 22, 2022. There is a vibrant charm to this collection of music that carries through the entire EP. The title track is a favorite so far, the semantic variation of ‘better off’ is fun to follow throughout the song. You may notice Stephen Barker Liles is sporting a Cashville Hooligans shirt in the video. Accidently on Purpose is a song about the sorrow of an unexpected relationship ending. The remaining song titles are Mirror Mirror, Anyway, Downhill, and Tell Me what it Feels Like. The EP has a good variety of storylines in different formats, contexts, and tones that flow well together for this project. It was refreshing to hear the new songs on stage and hear fans singing the lyrics back to them.

I first met Stephen Barker Liles and Eric Gunderson (Love and Theft) at the ACM Party for a Cause in 2015. We were the checker pieces of a game on a giant board in a celebrity charity game for veterans charities. It was made up of artists and fan players. (I hope that wasn’t my 15 minutes of fame) Storme Warren from Sirius XM The Highway was the emcee with Thomas Rhett and Kelly Pickler as team captains. The celebrity players left an impression on me and that sparked an interest in me to get involved in promoting music. I was reintroduced to Love and Theft following their Minneapolis show later that summer. Since then, I have attended almost every show Love and Theft have had in the area, and of course, if life allows, I travel to see them in neighboring states.

They are two of my favorite people and it has been a pleasure to get to know them in the last few years.

Congratulations to you guys on the release of Better Off!

Congratulations to Eric for 7.5 years of sobriety!

Rose

In a Country Minute

Love and Theft at Rockin Up North Fest '22

Love and Theft

Better Off