Some more fantastic music that might be off of your radar, but all of it is awesome music that is worth your time!
Music in this episode:
- The One I Am by Dan Baird
(from Love Songs For The Hearing Impaired)
www.DanBaird.net (unofficial)
- Far And Wide AND Ruby by Roadside Graves
(from My Son's Home)
www.RoadsideGraves.com
- You're Gonna Miss Me AND Somebody Tell The Truth by Band Of Heathens
(from One Foot In The Ether)
www.BandOfHeathens.com
- Hard TO Believe AND Black T-Shirt by Slaid Cleaves
(from Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away)
www.Slaid.com
- Back To Maria AND That's All by Jefferson Thomas
(from Western Front)
www.JeffersonThomas.com
- Rebels AND Play It All Night Long by Drive-By Truckers
(from The Fine Print)
www.DriveByTruckers.com
- Kit's Song by The Dog Roses
(from Just Another Saturday)
www.DogRoses.co.uk
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E-Mail: Von@AmericanaRoots.com
Voice Mail: 314-479-3051
Blog site: www.AmericanaRockMix.com
Twitter: www.Twitter.com/ARockMix
The Band Of Heathens
July, 22nd, 2009
Abbey Theatre
Durango, CO
- One More Step > Hurricane (Levon Helm)
- Bumblebee
- Chipping Away At The Promised Land
- Unsleeping Eye
- Talking Out Loud
- Hey Rider
- What's This World
- Love Me Til The Sunshines
- Hallelujah > I Got A Feeling (The Beatles) > Second Line > Nine Steps Down
- Somebody Tell The Truth
- Lady Juliana
- You're Gonna Miss Me
- Heart On My Sleeve
- Look At Miss Ohio (Gillian Welch & David Rawlings)
- This I Know
- Cornbread
- Jackson Station
- encore applause
- Don't Call On Me
E-mail: Von@AmericanaRoots.com
Voice Mail: 314-479-3051
Blog Site: www.AmericanaRockMix.com
Follow me on Twitter: www.Twitter.com/ARockMix
This past week, the Americana Music Association, announced the nominees for the 2009 AMA Awards and Honors to be held in Nashville in mid September. ¬ In that announcement came word that the Austin based band “The Band of Heathens” is nominated for the New & Emerging Artist category. With that came some of my own personal satisfaction in having a chance to see this band develop over the past few years. I wanted to try and capture my journey along the road of The Heathens. This band continues to not only amaze me musically and in addition they have built a model that all musicians can learn from and have managed to do it while keeping their own ego’s in check (well mostly) ;-)
The band originally launched in 2006 as a side project for a group of singer/songwriters out of Austin: Brian Keane, Gordy Quist, Colin Brooks & Ed Jurdi. At the time, I caught a few of the early on shows to support one of my personal favorite songwriters, Brian Keane. Brian was fresh off the release of his debut album “I Ain’t Even Lonely” and his shows would often include band mates: Colin Brooks, bass player Seth Whitney and drummer Eldridge Goins. I knew of Colin back from my days of catching numerous Guy Forsyth shows to which Colin played accompanying guitar. I was always impressed with the fact that Guy even had a guitarist since if you’d ever seen Guy, you knew he had some damn fine musicians (going back to the days of the early Asylum Street Spankers). In addition, Keane turned me on to Gordy Quist’s solo release entitled “Songs Play Me”.
In 2006, I started to see the band grow into the Band of Heathens made up of four super talented young songwriters: Brian Keane, Gordy Quist, Ed Jurdi and Colin Brooks while being backed by Seth and Eldridge. They started playing a Wednesday night gig at the club Momo’s in Austin and after a misprint in the local paper deemed the group as “The Heathens” the name stuck. I would catch their shows around San Antonio when I could, as it was my chance to catch Brian Keane. For a music fan, this group was overwhelming with a tremendous range of talent up on stage all contributing to help out each other’s songs. The band then released their first CD entitled “Live at Momo’s” which cemented this idea of real-time band collaboration.
In 2007, something happened. Brian Keane packed his bags and moved out to Nashville. Eldridge, the flamboyant drummer took off. At this point, I was convinced the heathens would disband but much to my surprise they picked up one hell of a new drummer in John Chipman (previously with Jon Dee Graham). The group slimmed down to three singers: Gordy, Colin and Ed and rounded out with Seth and John backing the group. In March (2007) we invited the group out to our AmericanaRoots.com Showcase during SXSW after picking up the “Best New Band” award from the Austin Music Awards. These guys played any and every show rounding out with at least a dozen or so events they played that week in Austin.
In 2008, the band released a Live at Antone’s CD & DVD followed by their first ever studio album entitled “The Band of Heathens” which in my mind put these guys on the map for good. This was their highly anticipated first studio album with tracks from Ed, Gordy & Colin as all their previous music was only available on live cd’s. The studio transformed these guys into something quite amazing. This band had two years worth of non-stop playing plus two live cd’s behind their belts. This experience translated into a great blend of music, which saw tremendous success on Americana Radio across the country. Also in 2008, the band returned for a second time to our AmericanaRoots.com showcase during SXSW. In addition, the Americana Music Association invited the band out to Nashville for their yearly Americana Music Conference to speak about their band model. Without getting into too much boring business detail, let me just say that The Band of Heathens are a model in which all up and coming musicians can learn from. The idea of combining three singer/songwriters up on stage may seem like a disaster to many but given the right set of people, it’s a smart and efficient way of distributing your music in a live experience.
In summary, this band has earned everything that has come their way. Gordy, Ed, Colin, Seth and John have the miles to prove it. This wasn’t a band that was 3 years in the making, it’s a combination of many years of going down the singer/songwriter route and collectively stumbling upon a group of somewhat like-minded peers and building a band around everyone’s creativity. Over the past three years, I have seen these musicians elevate not only their stage presence but freely contribute to each other’s songs which equates to a much more rounded out sound. The harmonies, commanding of the stage and all around enthusiasm to have fun translates to a good time anywhere you see them. While I’m sure the Band of Heathens will continue to evolve over the years, it would be hard to see anyone of these guys leave the band. Given my past history though, I’m pretty sure the idea of The Band of Heathens may make this a perpetual band for many years to come.
As a AMA member, I will humbly request that you consider your vote to these band for “New & Emerging Artist” at this year’s AMA awards. This category this year is by far the toughest with The Belleville Outfit, Justin Townes Earl, Sarah Borges and The Band of Heathens. Each band would be a great selection but for this year my vote goes to the Band of Heathens.
To learn more about The Band of Heathens, visit their website at http://www.BandOfHeathens.com and check out LoneStarMusic.com for all of the BoH's catalog of CD's.
Man, can this festival be frustrating. Too many great shows to choose from and too many great places to try to eat at!
I spent SXSW with Gregg Geil, his wife Nicole, as well as Hickorywind.org founder Larry and his wife Heather romping about Austin in an 'earal' and oral orgy of sound and taste! Gregg has posted on some of the happenings in Austin already, so I'd like to add some photos to give a 'taste' of what this thing was like.
We spent thursday night at Antone's at the Americana Music Association Showcase at a jam packed Antones. The next day we had the Americanaroots.com and Galleywinter.com showcase at the Waterloo Ice House. Saturday was spent at The Continental Club seeing Jon Dee Graham and James McMurtry in the afternoon. In the evening I happened upon the Countryline Magazine showcase at The Ranch on 6th and saw Ruby Jane, Jeffrey Steele (Nashville songwriter extrordinairre) and Brandon Rhyder. There were probably only 30 other shows we would have liked to see. The great music, coupled with great food (Salt Lick BBQ and Guero's Taco Bar especially) made for one fantastic weekend!
[caption id="attachment_1192" align="aligncenter" width="253" caption="Carrie Rodriguez at Antones"]
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[caption id="attachment_1198" align="aligncenter" width="283" caption="Band of Heathens at Antones"]
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[caption id="attachment_1199" align="aligncenter" width="209" caption="Sarah Borges and me"]
Given my previous history with SXSW, Thursday is built for the Americana Music Association showcase at Antone's. This year had a ton of hype in the local press since they were doing a tribute to the great Doug Sahm. We landed over at Antone's about 45 minutes ahead of the start time to ensure we could get in. I never pick up wristbands/badges for SXSW since I've never had an issue getting into shows. This year was a bit different! The line for un-badged people wrapped around the building. The way it works at SXSW is if you have a badge, you get priority over everyone else. We made it to the front door as they told us "We're at capacity" and keep in mind this is 15 minutes before the first band even came on stage. We got in the doors about 30-45 minutes later, so it wasn't a big issue.
As far as the show goes, this night was amazing. The Doug Sahm tribute lived up to the hype! The show featured artists like Jimmie Vaughn, Sarah Borges, Dave Alvin as well as the Texas Tornadoes playing for a full hour. The stage was led by Doug Sahm's son, Shaun Saum. Out of all these artists, I'd have to say Sarah Borges knocked it out of the park with her two covers of Doug's work. The Texas Tornadoes lit the stage up as well with a full cast of amazing musicians including Augie Meyers and Flaco Jimenz!!! That was a real treat. They mentioned they would be doing some tours later this year, so keep an eye out.
At 10PM, the official SXSW showcase started up with Carrie Rodriguez taking stage. I've been on the record since the start of how much I dig Carrie although over the years have felt she never transformed her energy of her first album to her live show. That all changed with this show. Carrie was on a mission and brought energy coupled with some damn fine musicians. I'm not much on fashion but Carrie looked great ;-)
At 11PM, Justin Townes Earle took the stage. Originally this slot was for Buddy Miller however for obvious reasons he didn't make it down to Austin this year. Justin Townes took the stage with his sideman Corey (I think that's his name?) and put on my favorite set of the night. These two commanded the stage and Justin has come into his own with such a unique style that harps back to the original Hank Williams. I can't get enough of this sound and Justin's humor really ties the performance together.
At Midnight, Raul Malo took the stage fresh off his Jay Leno performance last week. Let me preface this with the fact that I was a huge Mavericks fan. The past few years, I've seen Raul dress up in suits and belt out slow songs with his wonderful voice. The slow stuff is what I can never get into but luckily this show. Luckily, Raul obviously heard me :-) This show was upbeat and a lot of fun to be a part of. He played a few Mavericks songs along with some tunes off his new album "Lucky One" which is just my style. The whole vibe had a pulp fiction feel to it with all the ladies dancing which was pretty cool.
At 1AM, my boys The Band of Heathens, took the stage. This group of guys have worked so hard over the past few years and deserved to close out this tremendous night of music. The guys were dead on with their tremendous harmonies and full sound. It was the first time I've seen them with a dedicated organ/keyboard player which enhanced the sound even more than it already is. The Band of Heathens took "Best Band of the Year" last year at SXSW and have played our past three AmericanaRoots.com showcases. Obviously, I'm a huge fan of these guys and have yet to see a show that disappoints.
Overall, another stellar night at South By Southwest although tonight we will top it with our Friday night AmericanaRoots.com/Galleywinter.com showcase at Waterloo Ice House :-) I am so ready for our show which includes Two Tons of Steel, The Doc Marshalls, Jason Eady, Scott Miller, Wrinkle Neck Mules, Modern Day Drifters and the Josh Grider Trio. Come on out and enjoy some great music!! It's free and they have a great beer garden setup out front.
The band’s origin dates to spring 2006 when the three principle songwriters, Colin Brooks, Ed Jurdi and Gordy Quist, were sharing the bill every Wednesday night at the Austin club Momo’s. They started sharing the stage equally and collaborating on each other’s songs during the gigs billed as “The Good Time Supper Club.” Momo’s became the hot spot for live music on Wednesdays. A local paper mistakenly called the act “The Heathens”, but the name stuck. Drummer John Chipman and bassist Seth Whitney round out the band.
This is yet another fine band that built its reputation and fan base first on its live performances. “Live at Momo’s” was released in October 2006. The “Best New Band” award, among other awards, soon followed at the Austin Music Awards. Soon after, the Austin Music Television channel M.E. TV suggested another live recording, this one to be released on CD and DVD. On June 1, 2007 the band’s live show at legendary Austin club Antone’s was recorded and recently released on CD and DVD. Evidence of the bands talent is the fact that they skillfully use three main frontmen/songwriters. I wouldn’t normally spout on about a bands history as much, but I imagine this band will be on top of the Americana world for some time, so you might as well know the history! May 20th saw the release of their debut studio CD, and it is an Americana gem that you really must have in your collection. There are fast tunes ("Don’t Call on Me"), slower tunes ("Maple Tears"- highlighted by Patty Griffin on harmony vocal), rockin’ tunes ("Heart on My Sleeve") and southern country/spiritual type tunes ("Jackson Station"). The CD features loads of guitar, mandolin, organ, dobro, piano, harmonica and even Gurf Morlix on pump organ on the tune “Second Line.” Whatever the instrument is that you like most, it is likely here. The band delivers some clever vocals as well, such as on “Maple Tears,” which starts:
“I met a girl, from Manitoba; where the wind is wild, on the Hudson Bay
She could have been from Oklahoma, if she didn’t live so far away!”
“Unsleeping Eye,” loaded with Hammond B3, sounds like it could have been plucked right off of an old Little Feat CD. (It even features the line “unsleeping eye, don’t fail me now"). Lowell George must be smiling somewhere. Don’t let Lowell smile alone. Pick up this fine disc (and their live recordings) and you’ll be smiling too!
