Singer Bret Gyrich remembers the exact moment he truly fell in love with music.

“I was eight years old, living in the mountains of Olongapo City," he says. "One Saturday morning, one of our neighbors was doing her laundry with this water pump, listening to Born in the U.S.A. by Bruce Springsteen. I’m hearing this lady, who has never been in America, singing like she’s born in the U.S.A. That was her song. I’m thinking, ‘That’s what I want to do.’ I want to create that kind of magic, to take somebody and give them a front-row seat to the Technicolor silver screen I‘ve got in my head.”

Gyrich moved to Houston almost two decades ago and co-founded Low Man's Joe (LMJ) in 2008. The band has carved an impressive, rapid path to Houston notoriety. LMJ played four sets at the 2008 Rock the Bayou Festival and released a full-length disc, Where I Stand in 2009. The bulk was assembled at Red Tree Recording Studio with owner/producer Jeffery Armstreet (also a bassist for Houston band Evangeline), and it was named one of the Houston Chronicle's Best Discs of 2009.

Gyrich possesses a big, booming voice that commands attention, both for its power and its passion. He is the group's chief songwriter and has helped propel them to big wins at the House of Blues Battle of the Bands and the inaugural VH1 Save the Music Battle of the Bands. LMJ performed at the Hard Rock Cafe Pinktober benefit for breast-cancer awareness alongside American Idol 7's Kady Malloy (another Houston Hearts Haiti contributor, who also makes a cameo in the band's No Heroes music video.)

In February, LMJ performed at the Monster Jam inside Reliant Stadium, where Gyrich had the honor of performing the National Anthem -- a cappella -- in front of thousands of fans.

LMJ is planning to head into the studio soon to record new music and has a new music video in the works.