LINEUP

Aaron Watson

Aaron Watson’s career is perhaps summed up best by Forbes, who says he’s "one of country music’s biggest DIY success stories."

For the past 20 years, Watson has achieved success on his own terms, hand-building a lauded career through songwriting, relentless touring and more than a dozen self released albums. His independent Texas spirit and strong work ethic are emblematic of the western lifestyle; virtues which have taken him from humble honky-tonks of Texas to multiple sold-out tours around the world.

In 2019 he released Red Bandana — "his most ambitious album yet" (Taste of Country) —whose 20 songs were hailed by The Boot as "a pure expression of his traditional country ethos.”

This unprecedented acclaim follows Watson's previous album, Vaquero, whose Top 10 hit "Outta Style" earned a BMI Millionaire award, and The Underdog, the first independent album in the history of country music to top the Billboard Country Albums chart.

With a dozen additional records under his belt, Watson is exceeding major-label-sized metrics while maintaining his independence, further galvanizing his "Texas country's reigning indie underdog" (Rolling Stone) brand. "There may be no more genuine singer-songwriter at the moment than Watson," says Texas Monthly, pointing to a self-made businessman, chart-topper, and road warrior whose authenticity has made him a country music staple.

Larkin Poe

“The songwriting and recording development of Larkin Poe and their connection to the live audience has been a joy to behold…If you can find something of your own in a Skip James song, or spend a Berlin afternoon banging your hotel room’s furniture to render a YouTube version of an M.J. song, you know you’ve come to the right address.”
- Elvis Costello

In any normal year, Larkin Poe would have released an acclaimed new album and then hit the road for a very long time. But of course, 2020 has been no ordinary year. The GRAMMY® Award-nominated sister duo of Rebecca and Megan Lovell kicked things off in June with their fifth studio album, SELF MADE MAN, topping an array of Billboard charts while earning unanimous acclaim around the world. Instead of a summer of tour buses and packed theaters, the Atlanta-bred, Nashville-based Lovells found themselves at home, performing many livestream concerts and adding to their much-loved YouTube covers series. That got them thinking, and now we have Larkin Poe’s second album of 2020 – KINDRED SPIRITS, a collection of stripped-back versions of covers, both classic and new.

KINDRED SPIRITS – which, like its three predecessors, was self-produced by Larkin Poe for their own Tricki-Woo Records, this time from their home studio with engineer and Rebecca’s husband Tyler Bryant of Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown – sees the duo paying tribute to favorite artists from the Allman Brothers Band, Lenny Kravitz, and Robert Johnson to Elton John, Post Malone, Ozzy Osbourne, and The Moody Blues.

“Music is a bridge that can connect generations across time,” says Rebecca and Megan. “In recording KINDRED SPIRITS, our admiration for the artists who originally wrote and performed these songs blossomed into an even deeper reverence. Coming up in a family of music lovers, a lot of the songs have been with us since childhood; in 2015, we started a YouTube series dedicated to paying tribute to our musical heroes that unexpectedly took off and when fans began requesting recorded versions of the songs, we began daydreaming about how an interpretive album might take shape. Bringing these old friends into the studio, stripping them to the bones and recording them live and raw, felt like a ritual.”

When Larkin Poe released SELF MADE MAN, it was in the wake of a remarkable two-year run that saw them earn a #1 Billboard Blues Chart album and a “Best Contemporary Blues Album” GRAMMY® Award nomination for 2018’s VENOM & FAITH. While VENOM & FAITH truly solidified the power and independent spirit of the band, SELF MADE MAN is undeniably the Lovell’s most wide reaching, artistically adventurous, and self-determined work to date, finding the multi-instrumentalist sister duo, pushing their music and message towards hitherto unexplored terrain.

Inspired by their epic world travels yet still powerfully rooted in the creative heritage of their beloved American South, the album was ambitious in both its eclectic, energetic sound and its resolutely welcoming mission, its universal lyrical approach fueled by tradition, invention, and Larkin Poe’s remarkable ability to touch the hearts and souls of their fellow humans worldwide.

In its first week of sales, SELF MADE MAN rose to the top of Billboard’s “Top New Artists Albums” and “Current Rock Albums” charts, while also climbing to #1 “Blues Albums” and #2 on the “Americana/Folk Albums.”

American Songwriter called the band "self made badasses," going on to say, “Steeped in the sounds and tropes of the South, SELF MADE MAN is heavy and lean at the same time. Good and evil, sanctified and profane, they plug into the themes of Southern Gothic that have fed Flannery O’Connor, William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, Harper Lee and Carson McCullers.”

No Depression said that Larkin Poe are “kicking butt with a mixture of rocking blues to make powerful, defiant statements,” while the Boston Herald hailed, “Larkin Poe plays southern rock. No matter how expansive your definition of the genre is, the band covers it then transcends it.” The Atlanta Journal Constitution said, “Larkin Poe simply dominates,” while Garden & Gun raved “southern music traditions loom large in the story of Larkin Poe.”

So while 2020 was supposed to be a year of hitting the road and taking their new songs to their fans around the globe, instead its become a year of reflection, of looking inward, of looking back. But Larkin Poe being Larkin Poe, looking in and looking back for them is also looking forward as they continue to put their own signature on the traditions they embrace. Not ones to sit around and wait for something to happen, Rebecca and Megan are constantly churning and creating. No one knows what this next year holds, but rest assured Larkin Poe will find ways to keep it fun and interesting for everyone, as we are all kindred spirits.

“We’re grateful for the experience of making this album and grateful to the kindred spirits who have come before us and written the soundtrack of our lives.”

American Aquarium

“Country music was the voice of the people. It wasn’t always the prettiest voice, but it was an honest voice,” says American Aquarium founder and frontman BJ Barham. “I think that’s where country music has lost its way.” He pauses, then adds, North Carolina accent thick and voice steady: “I operate in the dark shadows of what we don’t want to talk about in the South.”

These days, those shadows are tall and wide, making it hard to recognize a neighbor, family–– even yourself. On American Aquarium’s new album Lamentations, Barham shines light on dark American corners with heartbreaking conversations, long looks in the mirror, and empathetic questions, all through songwriting that is clear without sacrificing its poetry, and direct without losing its humanity. “As a songwriter, my number one job is to observe and then translate what I observe into a song, a story, a lesson,” Barham says. “I’d be doing myself and the listener a huge disservice if I didn’t talk about the things I see, which is a country, divided.”

As much as Barham appreciates an indignant protest song or one-sided anthem, he isn’t writing them. Instead, on Lamentations he’s making the political personal, reaching out to humanize folks with opposing viewpoints, and offering dignity instead of demonizing. The result is the strongest writing of Barham’s already stout career. “I’m still very much standing up for what I believe in––I don’t think anyone can question what side of the aisle I stand on,” he says. “But hopefully people listen and at least try to understand why their Sunday School teacher wears a Trump hat.”

Barham has built a fiercely devoted fanbase hundreds of thousands strong, fortified with 15 years of sold-out American Aquarium shows across the country and Europe. The band’s 2018 release Things Change strode confidently into that distinct territory where rock-and-roll and politics meet, prompting Rolling Stone to announce Barham “earns every bit of his Southern Springsteen cred.” In 2019, the American Aquarium lineup also shifted again: Shane Boeker remains on guitar, and bassist Alden Hedges, keys player Rhett Huffman, pedal steel ace Neil Jones, and drummer Ryan Van Fleet joined the group.

A beloved live band known for consistently playing at least 200-250 dates a year, American Aquarium chose to be more selective in 2019, winnowing the schedule to 92 shows. For Barham, sober for six years now, is a dad to a toddler and still happily married, the adjustment was a must. “We’re learning how to balance being in our mid-30s and being rock-and-rollers,” he says. “Being home was the most rewarding experience. It allowed me to be creative and write about things that really matter.”

Lamentations reflects that elevated focus. Barham, who is no longer religious but was raised Southern Baptist, wrote down the word “lamentations” in 2018, and knew it’d be his next album title before he’d written a single song for the record. He felt an anchoring connection to the word itself––defined as “the passionate expression of grief or sorrow”––but also to the Old Testament book in the Bible. “Lamentations is one of the few books in the Bible where there’s this doubt of God––this guy, crying out to the heavens, like, Why? If you love us so much, why did you let Jerusalem fall to Babylon?” Barham says. “I saw a direct correlation between that and a Southern man today who voted for Trump. I wanted to write about a broken America and all the things that lead a human being to doubting something. Every song on this record touches on something a little different.”

Album opener “Me and Mine (Lamentations)” is brooding and stormy, plaintive acoustic guitar undergirding Barham’s weathered vocals. Searching, frustrated, and sad, the song was written from the perspective of a conservative Southern voter who feels unseen, unheard, and short on hope. The broader message is immersive and immediate: Settle in and listen closely. Times are hard, and this record is going to talk about it. Barham, who doesn’t agree with the song’s protagonist politically, imbues him with respect and sympathetic fatigue. “There are so many people who come out nowadays and say, If you voted this way, you’re a racist. You’re a misogynist. You’re a nationalist,” he says. “But that was my teacher, my librarian, my uncle. I know they aren’t bigots. So instead of saying, You’re a bad person because you did this, I want to know why you did this. I want to talk to you about this.”

Upbeat guitar rocker “Dogwood” follows, with a tragic story wrapped up in singalong lines. Barham points to the song and “Luckier You Get,” with its Springsteen vibes and an ear-worm chorus, as two of the album’s more lighthearted moments. “Bright Leaf” is another musical moment ready for a crowd, offering a clear-eyed look at the tobacco farms and industry of Barham’s home through sharp lyrics that thousands will shout-sing right back at him.

Featuring wry pedal steel and a shuffling back beat, “Better South” is an alternative anthem, written and sung by a native Southerner who believes in change. Line after line, “Starts with You” shows off Barham’s self-deprecating wit: “They say you’re only as sick as your secrets / If that’s the truth then, friend, I’m dying / Spent a lifetime salvaging shipwrecks, / Falling so long I thought I was flying.”

Throughout the record, the only victim of Barham’s harsh tongue is himself. Heartbreaking “How Wicked I Was” pleads for narrative omissions when it comes to explaining the past to his little girl. Album highlight “Learned to Lie” cuts just as deep: Barham delivers a gut-wrenching confession over lonely piano. Raw and intimate, its look at how we hurt the ones we love evokes the unblinking candor of 60s and 70s Loretta Lynn––that extreme honesty Barham first valued in country music, and now misses. “That was one of the first songs I played for the boys in the band, and they were like, ‘Are you sure you want to record that?’” Barham says. “It’s a hard song to talk about. It’s a heavy song. For better or worse, I’m going to be real with you live. I’m probably going to make you uncomfortable. And that I think that’s a beautiful part of rock-and-roll.”

“Six Years Come September” is another heartbreaker, masquerading at first as a familiar story before a sobering plot twist. “As a songwriter, that’s the best feeling in the world––ruining someone with lyrics and a well-executed story,” Barham says. He points to album closer “Long Haul” as a frontrunner for his own favorite track. Perhaps the closest the record comes to jubilation, “Long Haul” rolls through three steadfast commitments Barham holds true and dear.

Ultimately, Lamentations is a thrilling portrait of an artist and his band reaching new levels of skill, consciousness, and potential after 20 years in the trenches. Unruly and sincere, Barham emerges as an important American voice––and an unlikely peacemaker. “I’ve had to work really hard to carry water as a songwriter,” he says. “It feels really good to be in my mid-30s, writing songs that I think matter. I think when you listen to this record, something is going to change in you. You’re going to feel something. That’s the most important part of songwriting: making someone feel.

Ana Popovic

The award-winning, hard-touring, guitar slinger and singer Ana Popovic is back on the road promoting her new album ‘Like It On Top’, that focuses on empowered, successful, inspiring female role models.

Like It On Top opened #2 at the iTunes most downloaded US blues albums. The album peaked at #2 of the Billboard Top Selling blues albums chart.
Recorded in Nashville, TN and produced by four-time Grammy winner Keb’ Mo’, the blues influenced album features guest appearances from Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Robben Ford and Keb’ Mo’.

A trending theme in today’s world is women overcoming obstacles and breaking through the glass ceilings to reach the top. Like It On Top celebrates those that take initiative, develop, inspire and motivate. But it also credits the men who are motivated and enlightened enough to support women in their quest to be their best versions of themselves.

“I hope that my music inspires others to motivate ladies all over the world to be successful, energetic, empowered women on a mission, and to motivate men to give them that chance,” Popovic says. “The majority of women need to work harder than men to prove themselves or need to cope with a feeling of constant pressure to never make a mistake and be perfect. I believe that women no longer only have the right to earn a living and to take care of themselves and their families. The time has come to step it up. Becoming the outstanding leaders of tomorrow. Corner-office ladies in business, politics, and the electric guitar!”

Moving west
Ana has been moving west all her life. She fell in love with American blues as a kid, starting back home in Belgrade, Serbia (ex-Yugoslavia), then moved to the Netherlands to study at the conservatory of jazz and world-music. She lived in Amsterdam for over ten years, and then in a single-minded pursuit of her art and career, she relocated to Memphis, TN to record and work with Southern musicians. Finally, two years ago, she moved her family to Los Angeles, California where she now lives.

Called “one helluva a guitar-player” by Bruce Springsteen and nominated for six Blues Music Awards, Ana has appeared on the covers of Vintage Guitar and Guitar Player magazine. Her albums ‘Can You Stand The Heat’ and ‘Unconditional’ were USA Today Picks-Of-The-Week and featured on NPR Weekend Edition, who praised her “Fiery technique on the Stratocaster”. Nearly all of Ana’s albums reached the top of the Billboard Blues Charts. She and her six-piece band have toured tirelessly, sharing stages with B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Jeff Beck, Joe Bonamassa and many others.

King Solomon Hicks

King Solomon Hicks, the 26-year-old guitar phenom from Harlem, New York is an American guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and composer. He has invested in music from a very young age and started playing guitar at just six years old. Growing up in Harlem he was constantly surrounded by music. Hicks witnessed performances that made a significant impact on his ambitions as a musician and he says: “When you’re around good musicians, it gives you that spark . “Being around those types of musicians also taught me to NOT be the fastest guitar player I wanted to be the one who knew the most riffs and drew on a lot of knowledge so I could play anything, and with anyone.

Solomon won the 2021 Blues Music Awards for Best Emerging Artist for his 2020 CD release, Harlem on Provogue Records. The set, produced/recorded by multiple Grammy Award winner Kirk Yano (Miles Davis, Public Enemy, Mariah Carey), showcases Hicks as a writer, player and interpreter. He was WXPN’s “Artist To Watch” for August 2020 , His original song “421 South Main” made the Top 20 Blues songs of 2020 on Spotify and the song “What the Devil Loves” gets daily spins on “Sirrus Bluesville” Radio. Has performed on KISS Kruise V, Joe Bonamassa’s Blues Alive at Sea [2017 & 2019]. He's shared stages with Tony Bennett, Jeff Beck, Ringo Starr, Beth Hart, George Thorogood & the Destroyers, Mavis Staples, Robert Cray and many others. He is a member of the Blues Foundation in Memphis, Solomon has Judged the IBC's in Memphis [International Blues Challenge]" being a supporter of young Musicians and The Blues Foundation. He paid his own success forward by teaching music for the Children's Aid Society, working with the Harlem Arts Alliance and the New York City Jazzmobile.

Dirty River Boys

It happened during an ordinary refueling stop for the Dirty River Boys, the band on its way from Austin to Tulsa to kick off a six-date run. The van pulled up at a gas station and its occupants scattered, with Colton James hopping on his skateboard and heading over to a grocery store for a rotisserie chicken.

But the board hit an oil patch and went flying, and the bassist found himself not just down, but possibly out. “I see him at the van and he’s got a bone about to pop out of his shoulder, and our tour manager is on the phone,” recalls drummer Travis Stearns.

So the band retreated to Austin, where an ER doc told James he had a shattered collarbone and would need surgery. In the meantime, they outfitted him with a sling. For a moment the band contemplated scratching its upcoming six-date run, because for a stand-up bassist, a collarbone tends to be necessary equipment. “Every time I lifted my arms to play the bass I could just feel the bones crunching on each other,” he says.

But he didn’t want to force his bandmates to cancel shows. Why don’t I play the electric bass instead, he wondered, while sitting in a chair? Wouldn’t that work? The band agreed, and they were off again. “That was a long bumpy drive with a broken collarbone,” James wryly recalls. “Didn’t even stop to get any medication on the way—that was a bad idea. “

But that’s the Dirty River Boys ethos. Playing upwards of 200 dates a year, giving heartfelt, unrestrained performances, and winning over a loyal audience show- by-show, it takes a lot more than a few broken bones to stop them.

Perhaps that has a little something to do with the band’s hometown. El Paso, home of the “dirty river” known as the Rio Grande, is a place of schemers and strivers—not all of them on the right side of the law. Perhaps the quintessential American border town, the place locals call “El Chuco” is practically one city with its Mexican twin, Ciudad Juárez. Viewed from the air, only the path of the river delineates where one ends and the other begins.

It was against this backdrop that Nino Cooper, Marco Gutierrez and Travis Stearns came of age, playing music in various bands, dreaming of recording at Sonic Ranch—the mammoth residential studio just outside town—and hearing wild stories of drug wars and lawlessness from just a few miles away.

Fast forward a decade or so and Cooper had returned to El Paso from Southern California, where he’d abandoned a corporate career. Armed with an acoustic guitar and armload of originals and covers, he began playing anywhere that would have him, including restaurants and hotel lobbies. Stearns quickly jumped aboard to provide percussion, but venues weren’t crazy about a loud drum kit. So Stearns dropped the kit and picked up the cajón, a simple, box-like instrument common south of the border.

Marco Gutierrez, veteran of a number of local bands, soon rounded out the trio, and gigs in hotels and restaurants soon became bookings in El Paso’s handful of live-music clubs, which after awhile led to trips out of town.

“There’s definitely a lot of talent in El Paso,” Cooper says. “But being in a band, it’s hard to get out of there because it’s a nine-hour drive to get anywhere.”

Young, hungry and—literally—driven, the trio nonetheless buckled up for long van rides and soon began venturing to Austin, San Antonio, Tulsa and points beyond. Meanwhile a hard-driving roots-acoustic sound—which at the time, wouldn’t sound out of place on a playlist with the Avett Brothers and Mumford and Sons—began getting battle tested over an endless string of shows and hundreds of broken cajón heads.

Along the way The Dirty River Boys notched a number of significant milestones, opening for legend Willie Nelson several times, and selling out the famed Gruene Hall in New Braunfels, Texas.

Having left the El Paso restaurants far behind, the band continued to grow, adding stand-up bassist Colton James and functioning just a bit more like a conventional rock band, though one without the usual dynamic.

Indeed, The Dirty River Boys have an incredible number of strengths. All four members have a hand in the songwriting, and all four sing as well, while members often switch off instruments during shows. This isn’t just a vehicle for a songwriting frontman, with an interchangeable crew of instrumentalists bringing those ideas to life.

And so, after a pair of EPs and an album, “Science of Flight,” that served as a tour calling card, the time couldn’t be better for an anthemic, hook-laden declaration of intent, served up to an audience beyond DRB’s Texas diehards. And thanks to the golden-eared production assistance of Chris “Frenchie” Smith, that’s exactly what “The Dirty River Boys” is.

The record is both a cohesive statement and a dizzying testament to the band’s capabilities, as it shifts gears between genres with the skill of a long-haul trucker. There’s traditional, honky-tonk country (“Didn’t Make The Cut”), Flogging Molly- style Celtic rock (“Sailed Away”) and an all-out greasy road rocker (“Highway Love”) and you get the feeling the ’Boys are just getting warmed up.

No matter the genre, the band has a knack for imbuing every one of their songs with undeniable hooks, from the “whoah-ohs” that punctuate first single “Thought I’d Let You Know” to the power-chord riff that forms the foundation of El Paso scene-setter “Down By The River” (co-written with Ray Wylie Hubbard).

“It’s an anthem record,” Cooper says. “That’s what we were working for. We wanted to showcase our individuality, and all the vocals, and just capture the choruses and those chants.”

“We let all of our influences show,” Gutierrez adds. “So we really have trouble saying ‘this is rock’ or ‘this is country,’ or whatever. And we’re not Texas Country either, even though we get thrown in there. Americana is really what it is— because it’s a melting pot of music.”

This self-titled record—tracked at The Bubble in Austin and, yes, Sonic Ranch outside El Paso—was the first time the band had taken time off to record, rather than booking a few studio days between shows, and the effort paid off. “We just buckled down and focused,” Cooper recalls. “We didn’t want to cut any corners.”

And now, with its best record in hand, the band plans to venture much further afield from El Paso, and stay on the road. After all, with border checkpoints on every road out of town, leaving town can be a hassle.

Sometimes, in fact, more of a hassle than you might have expected. Not so long ago, the band found itself on the end of an “enhanced search,” with everyone asked to step out of the van while U.S. Customs and Border Protection brought a dog through it. “Then this guy pulls Travis out and we hear him just tearing into Travis,” recalls Gutierrez.

“Then the guy walks up to us and asks ‘which of you guys are from El Paso?’” Gutierrez continues. “We raise our hands, then we go to the side of the van. In a split-second he goes from mad dog to ‘El Paso Chuco,’ giving us the love, saying ‘Hey, are you the Dirty River Boys? I saw y’all at the State Line a few weeks ago. I’m sorry mijos, I was just doing my job.’ Just in a split second, the El Paso love.”

“He asked us for CDs, so we gave CDs to the Border Patrol agents and autographed them and everything,” Cooper adds, chuckling. “Now, every time we go through there, we say, yeah, y’all have a few of our CDs. We’re good.”

Cody Hibbard

Micky & The Motorcars

Hearts From Above

Thirteen years can put a hell of a lot of wear and tear on even the hardiest of rock ’n’ roll bands. But don’t be fooled by all those hundreds of thousands of miles on Micky & the Motorcars’ odometer: pop the hood of Hearts From Above, the long-running Austin band’s seventh album, and you’ll find a brand-new engine, fine-tuned and good to run for at least as many more miles still ahead. And behind the wheel? Two brothers — Micky and Gary Braun — who by their own admission haven’t been this fired up about playing together since they first rode south from the Whitecloud Mountains of Idaho to stake their claim to the Texas and wider Americana music scenes.

Of course, that’s not to say that the years between then and now have been fallow for Micky & the Motorcars, who have spent the last decade and change establishing themselves as one of the exciting young roots-rock bands in the “Live Music Capital of the World” and growing their fanbase through constant touring and a fistful of increasingly confident releases. But Hearts From Above finds founding members Micky (lead vocals and guitar) and Gary (guitar, mandolin, harmonica, and vocals) invigorated and supercharged by a transfusion of new blood from fresh recruits Josh Owen (lead guitar, pedal steel guitar), Joe Fladger (bass), and Bobby Paugh (drums).

“I think that with the last record we were struggling a little bit just trying to keep the band afloat,” says Micky of 2011’s mature but rather ironically titled Raise My Glass, a compelling document of the band at its most ruminative and brooding. “We loved the songs and we loved that record, but everyone was in kind of a tough spot with the same-old/same-old, and I had just gone through a breakup, so it was definitely the harder, darker side of the Micky & the Motorcars. Hearts From Above is more about all of us being in a much better place now. Having the new guys with us now has just brought a lot higher energy level, both onstage and in the studio. It’s kind of like when we first got started 13 years ago. All of us are just having a blast.”

You can hear that born-again “blast” right from the start of Hearts From Above with the soaring title track, a song Micky started working on in the afterglow of a particularly inspiring show he caught by one of his biggest Austin heroes, Alejandro Escovedo. “Alejandro’s one of those guys who makes me want to be better,” Micky enthuses, “and all I wanted to do was go right home and write.”
He ended up co-writing “Hearts From Above” with Willy Braun, who, along with another older brother, Cody, actually moved to Austin a few years ahead of Micky and Gary with their own wildly popular Americana rock band, Reckless Kelly. But from the moment the Motorcars hit town and released their 2003 debut, Which Way From Here — followed by subsequent releases like 2004’s Ain’t In It For the Money,2007’s Careless, 2008’s Naïve, 2009’s Live at Billy Bob’s Texas, and Raise My Glass — Micky and Gary have proven time and again that while they may not have been the first band of Brauns to take Texas by storm, they can more than hold their own. They’ve made quite a name for themselves out on the road, too, touring on average 12 months out of the year across the United States and beyond. (Micky & the Motorcars have toured Europe three times and even recorded a live album over there, set for release when they return overseas early next year.)

Friendly competition aside, though, the four Braun brothers remain as supportive of each other today as they were as kids, when they all played together in their father Muzzie Braun’s country band throughout the Western United States and in front of millions of TV viewers on the Tonight Show (twice!) To wit: In addition to co-writing half of the songs on the album, Willy also produced Hearts From Above. And of course Cody (who’s produced Motorcars albums in the past) is a VIP guest on the record, too. As Gary proudly points out, all four Braun brothers can be heard singing on the song “Hearts From Above” — something that he says “hasn’t happened in the studio since we were teenagers.”

“Cody came into the studio when we were tracking and coached us pretty hard,” Gary continues. “He has a great ear for harmony and really helped us pick the right parts for the songs. And of course I have always liked working with Willy, and I don’t care if we are writing a song or building a doghouse. He’s a fun guy to be around, but he also knows when to be serious. He was really good at talking to the band getting the best takes we could.”

Recorded in early 2014 at Austin’s 12th Street Sound and funded by the Motorcars’ first-ever Kickstarter campaign, Hearts From Above is packed with assertive songs destined to become crowd favorites; indeed, some of the songs already are road-tested keepers — most notably the epic album closer, “Tonight We Ride,” which Micky describes as an “anthem for soldiers and cowboys and cowgirls and bikers — really, anybody that sticks together as a team.”

“We’ve been doing that song live for probably almost a year now, and it’s starting to get to the point where the crowd is shouting out for it,” says Micky, who co-wrote the tune with Willy and Brian Keane. “That’s a really great sign when you haven’t even recorded a song yet and people are already requesting it!”

One of Micky’s other personal favorites on Hearts From Above is the swaggering “Hurt Again,” which he co-wrote with Jason Eady. “That one’s the wild card,” he says with a laugh, “because Jason is best known for his country stuff, but that’s probably the most rocking song on the whole record. I really love the opening line, ‘The taxi’s running waiting right outside/There’s a look of shame girl that you can’t hide,’ because I feel like it just reaches out and grabs people right out of the gate, and then it’s just rock ’n’ roll from then on out and it never lets up.

“We actually started out a lot more country,” he continues. “Before the Motorcars, I came straight out of a country band and then playing in a bluegrass band after that for a couple of summers on and off. But as we all got older, we started playing more and more rock ’n’ roll, and for me, ‘Hurt Again’ really expresses our ability to do that.“

Although Micky fronts the band, Gary’s brotherly harmonies and back-up vocals (not to mention his myriad instrumental chops) have been a key element of the Motorcars’ sound from day one. He also steps forward to sing a song or two of his own on every album, and his two tracks on Hearts From Above are among the album’s highlights: the hooky, up-tempo “Led Me the Wrong Way” and the haunting “Sun Now Stands,” a powerful account of Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce Indians of the Pacific Northwest.

“I had the idea to write about the Nez Perce and how they were kicked off their land and instead of staying on the reservation that the government had put them on, they decided to make a break for it and try to escape to Canada,” says Gary. “After awhile I realized it was going to be pretty hard to cram that whole story into a four-minute song, so that’s when I called Willy and as luck would have it, he had just finished a book on the topic and was also planning on writing a song about it. We got together the next day and got to work, and I think it took us about four hours to write the whole thing from start to finish.”

The poignancy of “Sun Now Stands” is matched elsewhere on Hearts From Above by the album’s one cover, “Sister Lost Soul” — a song that the aforementioned Alejandro Escovedo wrote for his acclaimed 2008 album Real Animal as a tribute to fallen brothers in musical arms.
“That song is very sentimental to me, and the whole band, really,” Micky explains. “We kind of do that one as a tribute to our good friend Mark McCoy, who was with us forever. We lost him last year in a boating accident.” McCoy, the Motorcars’ original bassist, died a year after leaving the band to move back home to Idaho. Micky also sings “Sister Lost Soul” in memory of another late friend who helped teach him guitar and introduced him to the music of Van Morrison and a lot of other great songwriters and rock acts.

“As we get older, we all start to lose friends, and whether they’re really close friends or even acquaintances you just kind of knew, it’s always a sad thing to see people have to go through things like that,” Micky explains. “And that song is just kind of a tip of the hat to all those guys. It’s an anthem for them and for the people that miss them.”

Bittersweet though it may be, the song fits Hearts From Above‘s spirit like a glove. For Micky and Gary Braun, who’ve driven the Motorcars together now for more than a dozen years, as well as for the newer members helping them steer the band further on down the highway, it’s a celebration of where they’ve been, where they’re headed, and most of all, where they are right now.

“Apart from how we’re all much happier now in regards to our relationships and personal lives, I think I was really able to just write about how grateful we are to get to do what we do,” says Micky. “I think all of us in general are in a pretty good spot right now. We’re happy to be on the road and to be putting out music, and we’re grateful to our fans for helping out on the Kickstarter project and for showing up at shows. We just seem to be in a very positive place, and I feel like this record really represents that.”

Robert Jon & The Wreck

Dustin Massey

An up and coming singer/songwriter from just outside of Fort Worth, Texas, Dustin Massey dreamed of playing live music long before he ever considered stepping on stage. While growing up, Dustin excelled at basketball which eventually gave him the opportunity to play in college. It was during this time that he picked up the guitar and first started writing songs. It would be nearly ten years later however, while working in Fort Collins, Colorado that Dustin began to venture out into the local music scene. Finding support within the community at open mics and performing at small bars gave him confidence to finally pursue his life long dream. After months of testing the waters, Dustin decided to take the leap and move back to Texas to hit the road in the music scene he grew up loving.

Squeezebox Bandits

Summer Dean

Kirk House