Dixie Witch – Into The Sun (2003)

Drawing deep from the well of Southern rock and hard rock in general, Dixie Witch is, fittingly, from Denton, Texas. Trinidad Leal (drums and vocals), Clayton Mills (guitar), and Curt Christensen (bass) have been playing together since 1999. The trio's first record, Into the Sun, was produced by the band for Texas-based Brainticket Records and released in the summer of 2001. After extensive touring, including a stint supporting fellow heavy rockers Alabama Thunder Pussy, Dixie Witch signed with Detroit's Small Stone Records for its 2003 follow-up, One Bird, Two Stones. A third album, Smoke & Mirrors, followed in 2006, and, after touring through America (including multiple appearances at the SXSW music conference and Emissions from the Monolith festival) and visiting Europe for the first time, Dixie Witch recruited new guitarist Joshua “JT” Todd Smith in 2009. Now based in Austin, Texas, the band issued its fourth album, Let it Roll, through Small Stone in the summer of 2011. ~ Wade Kergan