Texas singer/songwriter Kyle Park will perform at Shooters this Saturday, April 4. From Austin, Texas, Park began his career in 2005 and since that time he has built his musical career on solid touring. Park has expanded his audience from Texas into the surrounding states and the Midwest, frequently sharing stages with the likes of Gary Allan, Jack Ingram and the Eli Young Band. And, Park has used every one of those dates to gain more knowledge about his business -- what the audience responds to, how to build a compatible tour crew and how to make the economics of the road work.

His newest album reflects just that and is titled "Beggin’ For More." Stylistically, "Beggin'" contains more traditional country than he’s inserted on an album before, but it also shows him pushing the envelope on several tracks. U2-style guitar sounds and unexpected chord changes populate “The Night Is Young,” and a muscular foundation on “True Love” is part danceable soul music, part Wallflowers.

It’s the fourth album in a self-made career in which Park served as both the artist and the record label. More is the key word in the title. He earned his first No. 1 single in the middle of recording the album, when “The Night Is Young” topped the Texas radio charts, and he naturally heard fans begging for more music.

Park has been willing to man up in the face of adversity and to gamble on his own abilities in his journey from Austin-area teen to successful musician. He lost his father at age 12, a tough event for any kid, but in the aftermath he began toying with the guitar and found something that gave him real purpose. In the beginning, he bashed out chords to hard rock songs by AC/DC, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Metallica, among others. But Park soon discovered a greater affinity for the kind of music his dad had always played on the radio, like George Strait, Waylon Jennings, Mark Chesnutt, Keith Whitley.

Park built his own enterprise brick by brick, playing 100-150 dates annually for several  years now. And the future looks very bright for a guy who started with a four-piece band, traveling in a pickup truck with all their gear piled in the bed.

Listen to my show this week for your chance to win free tickets to see Kyle Park at Shooters.

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