“Where are the freaks at, that’s what I want to know,” Musician and Columbus native Toby Hartle said leaning against a truck in his driveway. 
    He supposes they all spend their weekend nights in their homes, but that’s not where he wants them. He wants them to be headed to venues and hitting up house parties to seek out and support local musicians, most of which produce sounds veering pretty far from what generally filters out of top-40 stations. 
  Toby Hartle is the frontman for The Hartle Road, a band that grew from him and his brother Matt (drums) jamming together in highschool that now tours across the country. 
  Hartle Road has gone from bumming around bars such as Columbus’ Elbow Room and other similar gigs around the Golden Triangle to spending three to four weeks at a time touring the northeast. 
   As far as it goes, Hartle said the South, specifically the Golden Triangle, has a pretty weak music scene. Lack of crowd support, he said, is really what it comes down too. It is difficult for a local band to get going when they have to spend a significant amount of time promoting future shows to drive up enough ticket sales to make it a worthwhile endeavour. 
   These are problems that bands in other areas do not encounter because people actively seek out shows for a live taste of some counter-culture. 
  “We love the Northeast,” Hartle said. “And we are trying to go out West. I’m just kind of tired playing in the South though man.”
  Being a large college town stuffed with hundreds of twenty-somethings from all walks of life, it is hard to imagine a ‘crowd’ does not exist in Starkville. In Hartle’s words, one of the biggest factors in keeping the hypothetical ‘crowd’ from becoming a ‘scene’ is a lack of house parties. 
   Hartle said towns with big house-party scenes are conducive to local musicians because it allows for them to consistently play for large crowds without having to deal with business managers and booking agents, and the crowds have a place to enjoy shows without as many restrictions as a bar would allow. 
   For an MSU student wanting to seek out some of these aforementioned freaks and listen to music independently developed by the artists themselves, Hartle said Memphis is the place to start. 
   “Memphis has a core group of 50 to 60 people who all know and work together that constantly put out some really cool stuff,” Hartle said.  
   Hartle said this group, comprised of bands, groupies and enthusiasts alike roam around between different venues, planning their nights around show line-ups rather than two-for-one wells. 
   Those inclined to seek out local musicians but can not make it out to Memphis on the regular will soon have the opportunity to watch and listen to a litany of home-grown performers in the coming days surrounding the annual Cotton District Arts Festival.
  Andrew Rendon, who sits on the committee in charge of the festival, said the applications are open for the 2016 Singer Songwriter competition. Artists can via an online application submit a sample of their music along with song lyrics, and from that pool a selection of artists will be invited to perform their songs during the competition showcase March 31 at Dave’s Darkhorse Tavern. 
   During the showcase, judges will select first, second and third place winners who will receive cash prizes and the opportunity to perform a 15 minute set during the Arts Festival on April 16.
   In addition to the festival and competition, Del-fest 2016 will be taking place the same day as the festival at Dave’s and will feature the release of the soon-to-be-completed Del Rendon tribute album.
   Del Rendon was a popular local musician who died young several years ago, and in recognition of his name and his contributions to Starkville’s local music, his surviving family, friends and companions started an annual Del-fest.
  For most of last year, Keatzi Gunnmoney, a local producer hailing from Louisville, has been working with current musicians to record a Del tribute album, where local bands recorded covers of some of Del’s most popular songs. Gunnmoney said all the recordings for the album are done, and it is on track for the April release date. 
  During this year’s Del-fest, every band recorded on the album will be playing at Dave’s, including MSU-student-comprised Tesheva.