No one who witnessed the humble, inauspicious, inconspicuous beginnings of Kevin Russell’s Shinyribs project at an out of the way bar in Houston on a Wednesday night back in 2007 can be anything but surprised at the soaring heights the project finally reached in 2014. A 19-year member of Austin’s keep-it-weird mascots the Gourds, Russell was a very busy man and the Gourds were flying high as they piled up the miles, most of them far from Austin. That first toe-in-the-water solo gig, which gradually morphed into Shinyribs, seemed to the Gourds cognoscenti like an attempt to make a little extra money on an off night rather than something that would take on a life of its own and eventually lead to the Gourds’ indefinite hiatus.

But after eight years, hundreds of gigs, and two albums, by late 2013 Shinyribs emerged as one of the fastest rising commodities in Americana and successfully crossed over into the regional Texas/Red Dirt scene. Okra Candy, the third Shinyribs album, drops just in time to surf along on the groundswell generated by the band’s traveling-circus live shows and whirlwind tours.