Bob Oldreive and April Rapier at Music City Texas

by Piney Woods Live Staff

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Duo offers an intimate look at their musical journey.

LINDEN — Bob Oldreive and April Rapier will be featured performers at the Music City Texas Summer Bluegrass Show this month. Oldreive and Rapier are founding members of the Houston band Sugar Bayou, and athe dou will bring an eclectic mix of acoustic Americana music to the stage.

In 1973 Bob Oldreive, helped form Houston’s seminal country rock band Dogtooth Violet. Their high energy shows garnered a large regional following. The band disbanded after only one self produced album. Bob went on to play with other Houston acts, most notably Caught in the Act and Hickory.

April Rapier and Oldreive first met in middle school choir. She would go on to study photography at The Rhode Island School of Design and still has work in many galleries. For a while it was her camera paying the bills, but the girl with the arresting voice also found herself singing demos for other writers. Soon she was filling notebooks with her own lyrics and searching for the right collaborator.

Sugar Bayou was formed in 2000, along with fellow Dogtooth Violet alumni Joe Lindley. With Bob and April at the core Sugar Bayou has released three CDs: Nowhere But Gone (2003), Dance Hall Incident (2007) and Lucky Life (2011).

Dance Hall Incident was chosen by the Houston Chronicle as one of the top ten Houston releases of 2007. That same year, American Songwriter Magazine honored Bob Oldreive’s Someone Else’s Dream from the CD. In 2008 Sugar Bayou was nominated for a Houston Press music award for Best Traditional Folk. And in 2012, Lucky Life was nominated for a Texas Music Award. Rapier’s “Too Proud to Cry” from Lucky Life has been nominated for a 2012 Independent Music Award for Americana Song of the Year.

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