“I can’t escape the rain, lord it’s driving me insane,” Dean Winter intones, backed by his crack country band — Jeremy Blanton (bass, vox), Jack Mock (pedal steel), Ty Sullivan (drums, vox) — at the outset of “Can’t Escape the Rain,” a single from the group’s new record Wheel of Bliss. “I’m running on empty in the Sunshine State.”

Winter’s rich emotional delivery and the band’s deft playing make it a believable pine. But though he may sing about arriving the end of the road, Winter and his merry band of honky-tonkers seem to be pushing the pedal to the floor. Aside from releasing their first full-length at the beginning of July, the group recently toured the East Coast. And they continue to take a blue-collar approach to performing, playing at virtually every local venue (or dive bar) that will have them. (The group plays Jack Rabbits in San Marco on Saturday, July 9.)

The band stopped by WJCT Studios a few months back to run through a couple numbers, including “Danville” from the band’s 2020 EP Paydirt, and the track mentioned above: “Can’t Escape the Rain.” Watch Dean Winter and The Heat perform on the JME Soundstage (above).

This performance originally aired on The Independent 89.9 HD4, WJCT’s music discovery station.

CREDITS:

Dean Winter – Vocals, Guitar

Jack Mock – Pedal Steel

Ty Sullivan – Drums, Vocals

Jeremy Blanton – Bass, Vocals

Host: Matthew Shaw

Audio Engineer: Cheikh Walker-Williams

Mix/Master: Jack Mock

Cameras: Rich Conner, David Luckin, Andrew Wiechman

Editor: Rich Conner