The free Y’all Means All music festival will be held June 25 at FoxDog in Temple. Performers will include Martian Folk, Lilly & The Implements, Jordan Valentin, Harper Rye and Kady Rain (shown above).

DAVID STONE | June 15, 2022

Kady Rain is a one-of-a-kind singer, but for those who grew up 30-plus years ago, she might seem a bit familiar.

Brightly colored hair, outrageous makeup and a left-of-center wardrobe, Kady looks like she could break into a rendition of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun at any moment.  And like Cyndi Lauper, Kady is amazingly talented and dances to her own beat.

“That’s an awesome comparison,” Kady exclaimed. “Cyndi defied music standards. Her own label thought she was horrible and now she’s an all-time cult classic.”

Kady, a South Austin native who still lives within 5 miles of her childhood home, will be one of five acts performing June 25 at the free Y’all Means All concert at FoxDog.

Also in the lineup are Martian Folk, Lilly & The Implements, Jordan Valentin and Harper Rye. The concert will begin at noon.

“This will be Temple’s first Pride event,” said FoxDog co-owner Ashley Vernon. “Even before we opened our business, we intended to be fully inclusive. This is something we’ve wanted to do.”

“We wanted to build community — a space where all people can feel comfortable,” she said.

Ashley said she and her husband, John Vernon, knew there could be some resistance to their planned festival.

“There has been very little pushback, but it’s been rather loud,” she said. “We’ve heard there may be protestors, but the Veterans for Equality motorcycle group and security will be onsite to make sure people can enjoy the event without a problem. Temple police will be patrolling the area as well.”

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Kady Rain said she has been singing for as long as she can remember.

“All of my life — I’ve been singing as long as I’ve been talking and walking,” she said. “As a kid, I listened to a lot of music, and I had two obsessions — Selena Quintanilla and old-school rock.”

“Selena was my inspiration,” Kady said with a big grin. “I had all of her albums, and I still have a 1997 Selena Barbie doll still in the box.”

“When I was 9, my dad sat me down and played old demo tapes of the Sex Pistols, David Bowie and The Beatles. I was hooked. That year, I got my first record player and Dad let me listen to his old albums.”

Kady admits that some of the old punk and rock songs were a little wild for a kid still in elementary school.

“I was a goody-goody two shoes but got ratted out for cursing on the monkey bars,” she recalled. “I was singing some Blink 182, and I guess the words were a little rough.”

“I started playing in some bands when I got to high school,” she said. “My first real band was The Pickpockets. We formed in 2005 and split up in 2008. We played a lot of indie rock but threw in some Johnny Cash every now and then.”

After The Pickpockets split, Kady headed to Portugal to visit family friends. She ended up in a bizarre music experiment.

“My friend was a music producer and he could play multiple instruments,” she said. “I sang background vocals, and we made a music video pretending like we were this big band, but in reality it was just the two of us. We made up a fake band profile, and sent in a demo to the 2008 SXSW Music Festival folks back in Austin. They loved it, and invited our nonexistent band to perform.”

“So, we had to find a rag-tag band and pretend we were foreigners,” she said, laughing. “We even faked accents. We called ourselves Ze Dos Frangos. You can still find it on iTunes.”

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Kady began her career years ago singing with The Pickpockets and a few low-key bands. She loved music, but she often was disrupted by boys and booze.

“In 2014 something happened that made me see the path I wanted in life,” she said. “I had become involved with this guy and he was abusive. One night, I guess he wanted out so he tried to kill me.”

“My life fell apart, and I was in the hospital,” she said. “I asked the universe: ‘What is my purpose?’ The immediate answer was ‘music.’”

“When I got back home, I started making music with a vengeance and I haven’t stopped. I had been distracted by bad relationships and supporting other people’s dreams — not any more.”

While her music became a bigger part of her life, her fashion sense remained a little “unique.”

“In high school, I wore fairy wings every day for three years,” she said. “I’m fascinated with how imagery, much like music, can transcend language and can impact people in such a measurable way.”

“I’ve always loved color, and I try to express that in my fashion as much as in my music. I want my image to be fresh, fun, playful and colorful and at the same time powerful and edgy.”

While appearance is a big part of the Kady Rain experience, her music speaks for itself.

“I’ve written more than 500 songs and I’ve released 20.”

Infinity, her first single, was released in 2015 and her first EP, All I Ever Wanted, came out in 2016. In January of this year, the self-titled Kady Rain album was released, and Temple will hear a heaping-helping of that album at the FoxDog concert.

“I’m working on some new music, and I’ll play some of that as well,” she said. “I don’t have anything coming up immediately after Temple, but there are big plans in the works. I’m going to play more around the state, not just in the Austin area.”

This will be Kady’s second performance in Temple.

“I was at O’Briens in February 2020,” she said. “It was a blast, then COVID hit.”

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Lilly Millford of Lilly & The Implements said she is thrilled to be part of Temple’s first Pride event.

“I’m looking forward to seeing the community come together to celebrate love,” Lilly said. “We will be playing songs from the album we released last summer, plus a few added surprises.”

Lilly noted that Frankie Grocholski, popular guitarist for New Orleans-based Cowboy Mouth, will be playing with the Implements on June 25.

Ashley Vernon, the FoxDog co-owner, said more than 500 people have expressed interest in the concert.

“We have a very large outside capacity,” she said. “We have Port-o-Potties in place, as well as hydration and cooling stations. We will have a lot of vendors and a couple food trucks. Rowdy Axe is coming out, plus we will have free face painting and glitter tattoos. We will be ready for a fun night.”

Kady will be ready as well.

“It’s going to be super fun,” she said. “I will be dressed very gay in my rainbow garb. I have a special song I’m going to sing. It’s called Fruity and it’s about being bi-sexual.”

today’s best bets

• Sweatin’ With The Oldies at Sammons Community Center. 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. Join Kathy Patterson as she leads these extremely popular exercise sessions designed especially for those with mobility issues or who have difficulty standing while exercising. Slow stretches and comfortable balance exercises, while seated or in contact with a chair, will help tone and strengthen muscles to increase mobility and flexibility. Gradual use of hand weights and stretch bands is also incorporated. Easily adaptable for those with physical limitations. Two convenient session times to choose from. For more information, call 254.298.5403.

• Open Mic Night at Fire Base Brewing featuring Maxx Carter.

• Comedy Open Mic Night at Corky’s. Sign up at 7:30, show at 8 p.m.

To include your events in What’s Happening, email information to OurTownTemple@gmail.com. Photos are welcome to for use in the publication as space permits!

What year was the WR Poage Federal Building constructed? ANSWER AT END OF TODAY’S ISSUE

On this day in 1901, the Roberts family sold the Old Stone Fort in Nacogdoches to William and Charles Perkins, who dismantled the structure and put up a more modern commercial building on the site. The Old Stone Fort dated to 1779, when Antonio Gil Ibarvo, who laid out the town, built a two-story stone house to use in the trading business. It remained the tallest structure in Nacogdoches for nearly a century. The Old Stone Fort assumed a quasi-public character over the following decades through several changes of ownership, and was the scene of many historic events. John S. and Harriet Fenley Roberts, who purchased it in 1838, operated a saloon there. When the Perkins brothers dismantled the building, they donated the materials to a local ladies' organization. In 1936 the state of Texas moved the materials to the campus of Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College, where a replica of the original structure was erected for the Texas Centennial celebration.

TODAY’S TEMPLE TRIVIA ANSWER: The Poage Federal Building was built in 1976, and for years was the centerpiece of Downtown Temple. At the time it opened, it was considered a modern marvel for a small Central Texas city.