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Plano's Texas Music Revolution was the anti-Texas country festival

As local roots-rock duo The O's closed out a set at the Toyota Texas Music Revolution in Plano under the setting sun on Saturday night, they couldn't have picked a better song than "Everything's Alright" to sum up the day up to that point.

"I got a feeling, I got a feeling everything's alright," sang John Pedigo and Taylor Young, who also host the weekly radio show Dead Air with The O's on KHYI 95.3 The Range. It was, after all, springtime in Texas, with a blanket of perfect weather and a colorful bouquet of twangy tunes. It felt impossible to argue that everything was anything but alright.

The local, independently owned station The Range has hosted its annual Texas Music Revolution concert for 22 years now, with this year's party representing the third turn in Plano's Oak Point Park suburban oasis.

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And as much as any edition before, this year's bill provided a refreshing twist on what a so-called "Texas country festival" can offer. 

Absent were the frat-approved, flat-billed bros that populate far too much of the far too many regional radio charts. Also missing were traditional Texas headliners such as Randy Rogers Band, Wade Bowen or Aaron Watson -- excellent artists well deserving of large followings, but often placed automatically at the top of every other festival billing itself as a day of Texas-country fun.

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Headliners included Oscar-winning Ryan Bingham, indie honky tonk queen Margo Price and the legendary Ray Wylie Hubbard. Each lend a unique signature to the hard-to-define sound that is the country/folk/Americana realm these days.

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With Dallas country soul heroes the Texas Gentlemen rocking some sweet, matching red pearl snap shirts, they joyfully laid down the funk on the main stage late in the afternoon.

Their performance suggested unspoken festival marching orders: Bring your best and don't waste any time in doing so.

Following Hubbard's greasy, electric roadhouse-style set, complete with instantly recognizable cuts "Snake Farm" and, of course, arguably this state's signature sing-along tune "Redneck Mother," Margo Price made quick work of holding sway over the lawn chair-infested grounds. Price, who found herself on the top of many lists of best country albums in 2017 with her All American Made LP, led her immaculate band with grit, skill and that bold, signature country voice of hers.

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Along with other non-Texan acts including Turnpike Troubadours and Jason Isbell, Nashville's Price is one of the artists us Texans desperately want to call our own.

In terms of her musical spirit, maybe she is a Lone Star gal deep down, as she counts Willie Nelson as a fan and collaborator. In the middle of her most popular song, "Hurtin' (On the Bottle)," she included a raucous, perfectly-timed medley of Nelson's "Whiskey River," as well as Merle Haggard's classic "I Think I'll Just Stay Here and Drink."

The appreciation of beloved Texas voices continued with the first song of Ryan Bingham's set. Under a temperate, clear dark sky, Bingham welcomed Price and fellow festival performer Jesse Dayton from Austin on stage to kick things off with a cover of Billy Joe Shaver's "Georgia on a Fast Train," which just happens to be a tune Nelson also works into almost every concert. Featuring more fiddle in his live show than in recent years, Bingham also covered the heavy-rocking Allman Brothers jam "Whipping Post."

The two covers made for spot-on bookends to describe Bingham's country rock ways.

His in-between song stories, of moving from one dusty West Texas town to another as a child, were told with the same gravel-laden tone he sings with. When his band exited the stage for a moment, Bingham offered up imperfectly perfect solo acoustic versions of "Nobody Knows My Trouble," and the song that rocketed him to fame in 2010, "The Weary Kind" from the film Crazy Heart.

As it turns out, the O's may have actually missed the mark with their earlier positive prediction. Everything on Saturday night was more than just alright.