Marcy Grace

Country crooner Bart Crow will bring his brand and band to the banks of the San
Antonio River on Monday, Aug. 19, for a Welcome Week concert at the University of
the Incarnate Word.
UIW student Marcy Grace, a singer-songwriter in her own right, will open the show.
“Welcome Week is the university’s opportunity to welcome students and faculty
back from summer break,” said Paul E. Ayala, director of University Events and Student
Programs. “We attempt to host events that are engaging and welcoming to all students,
faculty, administration and staff.”
Crow, who does about 200 shows a year, is the headliner for the Welcome Week
Concert which will include free food along the river near Alice Barshop Natatorium.
A native of Maypearl, Texas, Crow didn’t start his music career until he had done a stint in the Army and
began studying at Tarleton State University in Stephenville.
"I kept a journal in the Army and I went back into that and moved some things around and made a couple of
songs up, not even knowing what to do or how to do it," according to Crow’s online bio. When a friend booked
him at a bar, “a lot of my friends from school showed up, and that was it. The fuse was lit."
After juggling day jobs and music for a time, Crow left for Austin with his future wife, Brooke, and continues to stay based in Texas’ state capital.
Grace, who is working on a bachelor’s degree in music at UIW, has been playing the drums since she was 5 and the guitar since she was 11. She has appeared at Nashville’s legendary Bluebird Café in is working on her first album, “Fireworks,” which will be released later this year.
The Welcome Week Concert, Ayala said, “will take along the riverbank and include the academic colleges and schools, free food and drinks, and free giveaways.
There will be opportunities throughout the event to win many prizes.” - UIW Logos

SAN ANTONIO — An email from an old friend got me to the gig. But it was Marcy Grace's music that kept me there.

The 19-year-old singer-songwriter is a student at the University of the Incarnate Word by day. Thursday evening at the Hard Rock Cafe, however, she celebrated the release of her first album, “Fireworks.”

Respected record producer and engineer Marius Perron, who first made his mark on the S.A. scene in the 1970s at Zaz Studios, recorded the album at Studio CBC.

“What's really cool is that the material is really pretty basic,” said Perron, “but it's really good and different from a lot of the stuff you hear. It has a classic quality to it.”

The seven-song effort delivers such highlights as the sassy, twangy and catchy title track (that sounds like a hit), the excellent major 7th chord flavored “Take Me Away” and the classic rock-infused country of “Cry Baby.”

Grace, the daughter of Pat and Patrick Camacho, showed an interest in music when she was 5 years old, banging away on a toy drum kit. She picked up the guitar at age 11 and wrote her first real song when she was a sophomore at Smithson Valley High School.

She doesn't sing it anymore, she said, but for the record it was called “Can't Help Myself.”

That sums up her love of music. According to her aunt, music “just pours out of her.”

When she graduated from high school, Marcy's graduation present was an extended trip to Nashville. She stayed there for six weeks with her mom, performing solo at various venues, including twice at the legendary Bluebird Café.

“It really is a community of songwriters,” said Grace about the experience. “I left there so inspired.”

About that last-minute email: I've known Debbie Caldarola (formerly Copeland) since the sixth grade. She wrote and asked me to call her about her musical niece, Marcy Grace. What intrigued me was that the young singer had been determined to get to Nashville and actually made it there at age 17.

That's impressive. So is the fact that the teenager followed advice of industry experts to go to college and learn the business, which she's doing, as well as studying accounting. Equally impressive was that her aunt is such an advocate — and that her email was direct with the basic information.

(My email is at the end of every story I write for the San Antonio Express-News).

With a six-piece band that included a percussionist and a backup singer, Grace played a rollicking set at the street-level stage at the Hard Rock Café. In its live reading, “Fireworks,” is somehow even more joyous than on record. There really is no denying its instant appeal.

Her influences include Michelle Branch (“The Game of Love”), Sheryl Crow (“My Favorite Mistake”) and Miranda Lambert (“Mama's Broken Heart”). “I also grew up with Stevie Ray Vaughan,” she said.

“Angel Spread Your Wings,” a bluesy Bonnie Raitt-worthy ballad, showed that this young singer knows how to get emotional and earthy, too. - Hector Saldana