It was a beautiful spring weekend in the Hill Country, a little more than 10 years ago.  The grass was emerald, Onion Creek was clear and gushing (remember when that used to happen?), the sun was shining, and I was attending and camping at a multi-day music festival for the first time in my life and wondering to myself why I had wasted so much time in Houston before finally moving to the Hill Country.  I was really there to see my idol Bruce Hornsby, but I also decided to check out several acts that, I’m embarrassed to say, I had never heard of at the time:  Grammy-award-winning bluegrass artist Peter Rowan, Grammy nominee Michelle Shocked, and veteran Austin roots rock/R&B/jam band Flounders Without Eyes.  I left that festival being life-long fans of all of them.  And of course, the festival I’m referring to is none other than Old Settler’s, the first year it was held at the Salt Lick.

Flash forward 10 years, and I’ve now been fortunate enough to have played with all three of the above artists and recorded a live album with one of them.  My first time playing with Peter Rowan was with Flounders Without Eyes last May at the now-defunct Jovita’s.  The first thing I posted on Facebook after getting home from that gig was:  “there’s a reason why Peter Rowan is a living legend.”  I don’t know that I’ve really had very many, if any, transcendent musical experiences before that, but that show was definitely one.  This past Halloween down in Lockhart at the Purple Bee Halloween Hoedown, Mike Morgan put together a new backing band for Peter consisting of legendary drummer (just watch this) Jamie Oldaker, jazz guitarist Carter Arrington, Mike on bass, and me on keys.  Not only was this even more of a transcendent musical experience, but it was probably the most actual fun I’ve had on a stage in my entire life.  It doesn’t even feel like work when you are so in tune with what everyone else is doing that the music just flows naturally out of you and you don’t even have to think about where it’s going next or what role you have in it.

Well, apparently we weren’t the only ones who thought that that show was really something special, because I am pleased to announce that Peter has decided to bring us all on as his band, under the name Peter Rowan’s Twang & Groove.  This will be the first rock & roll band Peter has played in since he was 14.

Jamie is an absolute beast of a drummer, and he and Mike lock in a groove tighter than probably any rhythm section I’ve ever played with.  Jamie was one of the inventors of the “Tulsa sound” that Eric Clapton co-opted for his solo career, so sometimes he’ll start grooving on something that sounds like, for instance, “Lay Down Sally”, and I’ll have this sudden flash of insight that, oh yeah, the reason “Lay Down Sally” sounds that way is because of him!

Mike’s primary instrument is bass, but he has also played rhythm guitar with Flounders Without Eyes since 1997, as well as penned dozens of songs for that band and produced all but one of their albums.  His studio, The Zone, has also recorded the likes of Robert Earl Keen, The Flatlanders, Eli Young Band, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Butch Hancock– not to mention a little jazz fusion combo I was in called The Harmony Theory.   Mike has been producing, performing, and writing since 1968, and his credits include playing/recording with Allen Ginsburg and Peter Orlovsky, as well as a prolific songwriting collaboration with Arthur Brown.

Carter formerly played with Larry (a band with whom The Harmony Theory shared a stage several times, and incidentally a band that also played that first Old Settler’s I attended) and is a now a guitarist’s guitarist, backing up a who’s who of well-known Austin artists.  He produces a lush, rich sound that calls to mind Knopfler or J.J. Cale, and like those two guitar gods, he wields his power sparingly, but when he wields it, you had better hold onto your face.

(And, of course, you probably know all about the keyboard player by now.)

Our inaugural show will be at Antone’s on Wed, January 30:

Facebook event:

https://www.facebook.com/events/404513362964904/

Tickets ($17 in advance):

http://www.ticketfly.com/purchase/eventV2/195997?wrKey=B4CF4C8DF18257B5FFE4C407EEB92D78

Doors at 8, show at 9

We are also booked at Old Settler’s, 4/19-4/20 (time TBD):

http://oldsettlersmusicfest.org/

Expect more announcements soon!

Hope you can make it out on the 30th to help us kick off the new band in style.  It is certain to be like nothing you have ever heard before.  It is definitely like nothing I’ve ever played before– or rather, it’s like a combination of everything I’ve ever played before, multiplied by 1000.  Peter describes it as “where Rhythm and Blues meets Reggae at an all-day Bluegrass pickin’ party”, so if you don’t like the genre we’re playing, then wait five minutes.  It’ll change.

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