Tuning into Talent: Musicality Marvels at Texas A&M

By Parker Hurley

(Disclaimer: This longform article was written during my senior capstone course at Texas A&M and was completed in December 2023. I have posted it here for showcase as it has not been published.)

A month and a half before the infamous Robert Earl Keen Jr. concert took place in Aggie Park in September of 2022, The Barn Dogs – a country-rock band composed entirely of Texas A&M students – were tasked with performing 10 original songs.

At the time, they barely had any.

The Barn Dogs were in a race against time.

The group's recent addition to the band, Sam Hall, came to the rescue. Now the lead singer and songwriter of the band, Hall brought a few songs to the table that he had written in high school and his first year of college. Hall knew the songs he had under his belt suited the band’s style, and they all agreed to add them to the set list.

Then, Porter Garner III, president of the Association of Former Students, tasked Hall with writing a tribute song that honored Keen. After a moment or two of writer’s block, the song was completed and he turned his focus to perfecting his sound.

It had finally come time for The Barn Dogs to rehearse the set. There was only one problem: they ran short on time.

Hall, being the songwriter he is, got to work on crafting another tune for the band to sing after they left rehearsal. With one week until the performance, Hall randomly found inspiration amidst the anxiety he was experiencing and out of nowhere finished the song like it was nothing. It is now one of his favorite songs he’s written to date.

“Having a timeline definitely puts [on] stress, and I think sometimes pressure makes diamonds,” said Hall.

College Station, Texas, has fostered a young and vibrant music community for decades; Keen and Lyle Lovett both got their start in College Station while attending Texas A&M and went on to be successful musicians. The musicality of the small Texas community has yet to slow down: students across the Texas A&M campus have continued to claw their way into the music industry by performing around the city in hopes to make a name for themselves.

The Barn Dogs

The day had finally come: it was time for The Barn Dogs to perform on the grand stage in Aggie Park for Keen, a Texas and country music legend.

The clattering and shuffling of the audience made it very apparent the attendance at the concert was abundant, but singer Luke Morace of The Barn Dogs said the band had no idea how many people were there.

Their nerves began to creep in as they approached the stage for sound check. Usually a fun-time for the band as they get amped up to play, this time it was different.

The crowd got louder as they approached the stage. After giving each other a look, they jumped right into their first tune.

The concert had a whopping 24,000 people in attendance and is the biggest show The Barn Dogs have played to date.

“I'd say everyone would agree, everyone in the band would agree, it was the coolest music experience we've had,” said Morace. “I’ve been chasing it [the feeling] since then.”

Playing in a band promotes teamwork, builds motivation, reduces stress at performances and ultimately prepares one for the real world, according to Music House School of Music. For The Barn Dogs, freedom of sound became more important than being a band. Creative differences have been the cause of many band breakups; cited so many times it’s laughable in the music industry, according to Reverb Nation. For now, The Barn Dogs are taking a break from playing together to pursue their individual dreams and careers in the music industry, and Morace and Hall are taking College Station by storm.

Both singers who double as guitarists, Morace and Hall have continued to play alongside one another since the band’s hiatus. The duo opened for The Damn Quails in October 2023 and have since performed at friends’ parties and events.

“Playing with him [Luke] is basically the same as playing with myself,” said Hall. “Playing in a duo could be one thing, but playing with Luke is nice because we have played together for a long time. We know when to jump in with each other; I know how to sing with him. So, it’s honestly relaxing.”

Hall, Morace’s go-to guy in the band and one of his best friends, has a unique style of songwriting. Every song he writes is different; he doesn’t follow a template. While Hall doesn’t plan to pursue music in the future, he is thankful for his God-given talent and will forever love to play around with music. Majoring in ecology and conservation biology, his true passion is being in nature which is where he ultimately wants to end up.

“I've talked to some people who are in the business and they say if you have any shred of doubt whether this is what you want to do or not, then it's not for you, and I’ve got more than a shred,” said Hall. “Music and playing is just something that I really enjoy doing, but I'm kind of looking at [it as], I'm going to play some stuff, and if the right person hears me and something happens, then it happens.”

Morace, on the other hand, is working to set himself apart in the competitive modern-day music industry by being an entertainer, not just a musician. It’s not just about walking onto a stage and getting the set list done, Morace said it’s about interacting with the fans, being a marketable individual and having a personality that can put on a show for the camera.

“It's something that I really work hard towards, creating my brand [and] doing all these different things that you have to do,” said Morace.

The Aggie Network is at the heart of all their musical successes: because they are Aggies, The Barn Dogs were asked to open for Keen in Aggie Park. Both Hall and Morace are now in the College Station circuit, where they’re in a rotation to be booked at venues around Aggieland.

“I wouldn't have had a journey if it wasn't for being an Aggie,” said Hall. “They look out for you. They want to see fellow Aggies succeed and give them the chance to do it.”

Cliffs and Caves

At the core of the mother-daughter musical duo named Cliffs and Caves is Laity Lodge Family Camp, located in the Texas Hill Country at the headwaters of the Frio River.

In 2016, Claire Justice and her family were relaxing in the Frio River at camp. She caught herself gazing at the landscape that surrounded her; she admired the beauty of the canyon and the cliff side while she waded in the water near her mother, Lindsey Justice.

All of a sudden and with no idea what prompted her to say it, 13-year-old Claire Justice made a statement that would change the course of her and her mother’s lives forever.

“Mom, if we’re ever in a band we have to call it Cliffs and Caves,” said Claire Justice.

The benefits of learning music with family are plentiful: it creates memories and strengthens familial bonds, according to The Music Works. Cliffs and Caves fosters a unique relationship between a mother and daughter that is unlike many; Claire Justice sees a side of her mom that no one else gets to see. With three albums and several singles released in between, the duo has been cranking out music since Claire Justice was just fourteen years old.

Exactly one year after Claire Justice declared the band’s name in the Frio River, she and her mother sang together for the first time at none other than Laity Lodge Family Camp: the place where it all started. The duo signed up to sing in the camp talent show with James Bay’s “Let It Go.” When the song reached its end, they looked at each other in disbelief – realizing their voices blended seamlessly.

At the same time they were there, the camp was hosting a song writing retreat. Their stellar musical performance gave them the confidence to take a shot at writing a tune.

“We realized then how attainable writing music was, and it wasn’t this big, huge thing that you just weren’t equipped to do,” said Claire Justice. “Genuinely anybody can do it, it’s just a matter of writing your thoughts down and severing off what can’t be used and keeping what can and still getting your idea across. That’s the start of Cliffs and Caves.”

While a family-centered musical duo can foster significant highs, it can also bring about difficult lows. When the notorious COVID-19 pandemic rolled around in 2020 at the same time as Claire Justice’s senior year of high school was approaching, both Claire and Lindsey Justice decided it would be in their best interest to take a breather from their music.

“She ended up coming back around and wanting to write when she was a freshman at A&M,” said Lindsey Justice. “We used to write together any time because we lived under the same roof and it was like any time we had, any day and every day, we could work on stuff. Then it became something where we had to make time [for], but I let her drive that. She wanted to start working on the music [again] and then that's how the new album happened.”

Not only does Claire Justice play with her mom as a part of Cliffs and Caves, but she is also the lead singer of Juzzy, a band made of four musicians who all attend Texas A&M. Her best friend and electric guitarist, Will Mercer, has played a significant role in her life since they met at Hullabaloo Hall her freshman year at Texas A&M in 2021.

“Right off the bat, we would play guitar together like every other day; we’d always be writing music,” said Claire Justice. “I was really lucky that I got to find somebody that was like-minded, and he encouraged me to get better. I encouraged him to get better.”

Soon after they met, the fast friends stayed up into the wee hours of the morning jamming to songs with their electric guitars in Mercer’s dorm room. After about 25 takes, the two had finally made the perfect video of themselves playing Claire Justice’s song called “Sunrise,” where Mercer played the electric guitar.

“[After listening to the video] we were both like ‘That was the coolest thing ever,’” said Mercer. “She was like ‘Dude, we have to play music together. You have to be my electric guitarist.’ In my head I was like ‘Dude, I’m so bad.’”

Over the course of the next two years, the two played together for leisure and eventually found a couple more people who wanted to become rockstars, too. They all joined forces and formed what is known today as a band called Juzzy.

An up-and-coming musical group who officially played their first gig at The Backyard on Northgate in the spring of 2023, Juzzy performs covers of popular songs live around College Station.

Between Juzzy, Cliffs and Caves and studying animal science in hopes of getting into veterinary school, Claire Justice tries to balance everything on her plate as best as she can but knows there are more fulfilling things in life that will make up for not getting an A plus on an exam.

“It really is just a juggling act all the time, just trying to finish things as quickly as possible so I can go play and have fun,” said Claire Justice.

While Claire Justice has loved making music over the last six years, she knows the music industry isn’t a financially feasible place to pursue a full-time career in. Royalties for artists plummeted when Spotify – a popular music streaming platform – came into the picture in the early 2000s; for each dollar of revenue earned – which requires a large amount of streams – artists make between 12 and 65 cents, according to The Washington Post.

“You’re not buying music anymore,” said Claire Justice. “The only way you can make money is, you have to play five times a week live somewhere. Nobody buys vinyl’s hardly anymore, it’s like a specialty thing, so if you’re spending money making CD’s or vinyl’s, you’re basically washing it down the drain. It’s not built to be survivable unless you’re huge.”

Despite how streaming platforms have impacted artists, Claire Justice hopes to continue making music on the side in her future with both Mercer and her mother, because at the end of the day, it brings her true happiness.

“Well, we've always had it on our bucket list to somehow end up playing at Red Rocks,” said Lindsey Justice. “I know, that's a huge goal. We need to be playing live more. But everyone’s path is different. Everyone's path in the music world is so special and just up in the air. Who knows what crazy things are going to happen?”

Lindsey Fish Music

Lindsey Fish packed her bags and moved to Nashville for three months to pursue her music career after she finished the spring semester in 2022 at Texas A&M.

An independent singer and songwriter, Fish was asked to take the stage at the famous Bluebird Cafe on a calm Monday evening during her summer in Music City.

When Fish walked into the small, quaint cafe before her performance, she stood there in silence and awe. The number of famous artists who had career-changing moments in the same place she was standing sent her into a fever dream.

The only stipulation of performing at Bluebird Cafe is that artists are required to sing songs they have personally written, but that didn’t faze Fish, who has been crafting and releasing original tunes since 2020. She belted out a handful of her songs and left feeling on top of the world.

“I felt really thankful to be able to sing on the same stage as so many of my favorite artists,” said Fish. “It was just fun. It definitely was just such an incredible experience.”

Fish’s sophomore year of college brought big advancements that picked her music career off the ground and shot it into space. The release of her most listened to song “Like Fire” and her successful summer performing led her to believe she could take a chance at success in Music City. The music industry provides more than 56,000 jobs in Nashville along with an economic impact of $10 billion a year, according to the Nashville Post. Her success hasn’t come without help, though. The constant support Fish receives from her friends and family has been a guiding light to the singer throughout her musical journey; they have always encouraged her to shoot for the brightest stars to accomplish her big dreams.

A slew of Fish’s closest friends flew out to Nashville to cheer her on while she was there, a few getting the opportunity to see her jam out at Bluebird Cafe. A globally recognized listening room, the cafe has witnessed up-and-coming as well as famous musicians perform for more than 40 years; artists like Faith Hill, Garth Brooks and Taylor Swift have each had crucial, career-defining moments there that changed their lives, according to the Bluebird Cafe.

“I have so much support from my friends and family which is fun, because they always love to come listen or support me from afar,” said Fish. “I think that’s definitely one of the best parts of it.”

Whether it’s flying across the country to Nashville to watch her live out her dream in Music City, attending a local show in College Station or in her hometown of Dallas, Ella Kate Cotter has consistently gone the distance to see Fish rock out on stage.

“For the past few years, I’ve watched her play at shows in Dallas, and mostly family and friends come and get to enjoy her, which is so sweet,” said Cotter. “But there's something that's really different about being in Nashville and being the only one in the crowd that knew her and knew how well she was about to do, and then having everyone else get to hear for the first time.”

While she is currently playing three gigs a week, there have been plenty of times in the past that Fish has had to decline a performance; being a student and trying to further her music career simultaneously is equivalent to having two full-time jobs. The constant juggle has taught Fish how to use her time wisely studying for exams and motivates her to check all the boxes off her to-do list so she can have fun on stage.

“My major's not super hard, so it does make it easier for me to get to do all the fun music stuff,” said Fish. “But I am excited for after I graduate and for my main focus to be on all the music stuff so I don’t have to balance.”

Claire Franke, one of the rising artist’s roommates and closest friends, said Fish’s accomplishments and drive to succeed is both inspiring and motivating. Franke has known Fish since Kindergarten and has watched her performances since she started singing as a child.

“It's so fun now because she's serious about it, and she gets to talk to all these producers in Nashville,” said Franke. “She's kind of making a name for herself, which is fun too because so many people have a dream to do it, but no one actually does it.”

Now a senior at Texas A&M, Fish plans to move to Nashville after she graduates in May of 2024 in hopes of making music a long-term career. The people in Nashville that Fish has built relationships with have encouraged her to go there to dive into her career head first.

Fish is eager to switch her tune from college-musician to full-time singer in none other than Music City.

“You just have to work hard and try to get the right contacts, and if you love music, you should 100% pursue it and do it because it's so worth it,” said Fish. “Just do it and take the chance.”

Next Stop: Nashville

A passion for music has driven these musicians to where they are today. While each of their futures look different, they are all tied together by a common thread: their dedication to express themselves through the art of music.

As far as Morace from The Barn Dogs is concerned, a long-term future in the music industry is something that has had a stronghold on him for some time: the Keen concert in Aggie Park sparked a feeling in him that he wants to experience again and again.

Like Fish, Morace pried his way into Music City to chase his music career in 2023. He wrote and recorded three songs there and plans to release his original tracks, along with his first album, once his boots hit the ground in Nashville in May of 2024.

“I also realized that it’s tough to go chase music for years and years and years and barely get by,” said Morace. “After I graduate I'm moving to Nashville, and I'd like to get into the business side of music so I can have that as a backing but still do what I love.”