Live Music

Native Texan Rico Gonzalez moved to Michigan in 2015 and found fiddle work with a Country band, playing the popular cover songs of the time, where he met Dan Currier. The two of them hit it off well on long drives to and from gigs around the region. At the same time, Jakey Black IX and Ross Barkey comprised half of a prolific Outlaw Country band that also made its way around the state. The two projects overlapped occasionally, and as the pair of duos overlapped more often, they discovered a mutual appreciation for Texas/Red Dirt music. Contacts were made, and an experimental side project called Kin Faux was born. The band was inspired by the Texas/Red Dirt artists they all enjoyed, such as Randy Rogers, Kevin Fowler, Roger Creager, Turnpike Troubadours, and others. Unsure of how this brand of music would be received in Michigan, the band played sporadic off-nights as more of a creative outlet. Still, it quickly became apparent that an unexpected and thriving Texas/Red Dirt scene in Michigan was hungering for exactly the kind of music the boys were bringing to the table. Kin Faux shows rapidly made a name for themselves as high-energy, vastly entertaining events, and the band was regarded as “the band to see” in the area. It was time to bring this group out of “side project” status and into the forefront.

Within a few months, the boys were regularly booked all over the Midwest. They honed themselves into a juggernaut of raw live energy and musical performance that became ubiquitous throughout the state. Within six months of being formed, they garnered wins as Review Magazine's Best Country Band and Rico as Best Country Musician in 2018. They forged relationships with influential artists like Bobby Randall (Sawyer Brown, Confederate Railroad) and renowned songwriters like Bernie Nelson (Chris LeDoux, John Anderson, Confederate Railroad, Conway Twitty).