Come for the food and fun and stay for the amazing bands performing on the Party Stop Sound Stage ! The Taste of Country BBQ Nationals never sounded so good !

Casey's actual music career started as kind of a fluke. He was teaching guitar in an Amarillo music store, when he befriended Jim Whisenhunt (Cooder Graw). Jim informed Casey that he needed to be recording the songs he had been writing. Jim agreed to help and brought in the band to play on the Album.

Half way through the recording, Cody started booking gigs. It never seemed to slow down. Casey and the guys have played shows with many Texas favorites and gained the respect of their peers. Armed with the new and improved band, Casey felt like it was time to put out music that represented the bands current sound. Matt Martindale, fresh off the road with Cooder Graw, agreed to help. Matt signed on to produce.

A normal guy, indeed. Casey grew up just south of Forth Worth in Burleson, Texas, where he was active in rodeo as well as his father's greyhound dog racing career. Music, including 80's and 90's country and healthy doses of Elvis-his mother's favorite-was always a part of Casey's life, though it wasn't until he learned to drive that he truly discovered his passion for it. "You're really not in charge of the radio dial until you've got your own car," he quips, recalling his first musical infatuation with Matchbox 20, who he names a major influence on his songwriting and whose hit, "3 A.M.," he still covers today. With the entrance of Pat Green onto the Texas music stage, Casey was ushered into the Red Dirt world of Cross Canadian Ragweed, Robert Earl Keen, and Randy Rogers, bands he would follow from show to show to show with his then-girlfriend Melinda, now his wife and manager."There's no big machine behind us pushing the Casey Donahew Band. We just have us and we're pushing ourselves," Casey says, and that makes their success so much the sweeter.

The Eli Young Band’s national debut Jet Black & Jealous entered the Billboard Top Country Albums Chart at #5, #2 on iTunes and produced their first Top 10 at country radio with “Always The Love Songs.“ The band has appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, The Cotton Bowl Classic, CMT and GAC, and has earned acclaim in People Magazine, USA Today, Billboard, The New Yorker, New York Post, American Songwriter and Country Weekly, among others. During the last 12 months, EYB has opened the nationwide, sold-out Get Off On The Pain tour with Gary Allan and was a part of the Inaugural Country Throwdown tour along with Jamey Johnson, Montgomery Gentry, Jack Ingram, Little Big Town and Eric Church. The band regularly sells out venues across the country ranging from 1,000 capacity clubs and 3,000 seat theaters, as well as multiple shows where they headlined and sold more than 20,000 tickets. EYB recently finished recording their forthcoming Republic Nashville studio album with award-winning producer Mike Wrucke.

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