Texas Blues Rock Day! Jim Suhler King of Dallas. Jackie Venson Queen of Austin.

Jim Suhler & Monkey Beat

Jim Suhler & Monkey Beat are the essence of down-home Texas blues inspired rock ‘n’ roll and roots music. They have been playing together for over twenty-two years, and become renowned for no-holds-barred approach to rock.  It is no wonder that the band has worked with noted producers Terry Manning (ZZ Top, Led Zeppelin, Stax Records), Jim Gaines (Santana, Stevie Ray Vaughan) and Grammy Award-winning producer/songwriter Tom Hambridge (Buddy Guy, George Thorogood). Jim Suhler also plays as lead guitarist with George Thorogood & the Destroyers  and is a multiple nominee in the Dallas Observer Music Awards and is a  member of Buddy magazine’s “Texas Tornado Hall of Fame.”  

Jackie Venson

Texas-based Jackie Venson is a Berklee College of music classical music graduate who took up blues rock guitar and  blows the roof off every venue she plays in US or Europe.  Trained in classical piano, Venson has multi-instrumental chops plus a voice that can drip with sensual emotion or belt with blues.  Venson picked up the guitar shortly after graduating from Berklee and made the giant leap from classical music to the raw and gritty blues and never looked back.  Enthralled with music since the age of 8, this young singer/songwriter/musician  has a vibrant musical soul and  precise technical control of her instruments. She blends and bends Blues, Rock, R&B, Soul with her introspective lyrics into music that led to a Jackie Venson Day in Austin.