Recently I had the distinct pleasure of talking to Johnny Moeller, Ian Moore and Jesse Dayton of Texas Headhunters, who have just released their first album.
I’ll say it now, it’s been one of my favorite new releases of the year. Some of it is my love of guitar – you just aren’t going to get more firepower in one record this year than you get here.
Another is that you get to hear three great guitarists working together – knowing when to pour it on and when to hang back. And none of that would matter if they didn’t have the songs and the voices for each of them. In some ways, it reminds me of the first Traveling Wilburys record – not in sound, as the Headhunters are Texas and the South through and through, but how each song gives you a different feel and takes you to a different place.
As this isn’t meant to be a review of their record, perhaps I should get on with it and let the band do the talking……
Twangville: So how did you guys decide to get together to form the group? All of you guys are established and have your own careers. What made you decide to join forces?
Johnny Moeller: It was Jesse. Jesse did it.
Jesse Dayton. I was the instigator. My/our manager was telling me – “Hey, you should start a project and do some of this Texas roots and blues stuff. Just grab a few other guitar players.” And there’s this record that me and Johnny and Ian all liked a long time ago called Showdown, which featured Johnny Clyde Copeland, Robert Cray and Albert Collins.
Twangville: Yeah, I own that record. I used to play it in on the on the air when I was doing college radio. It is in my living room as we speak.
Dayton: It is a great record. We were like – “Why don’t we do something like this?” None of us knew how any of this was gonna work out, but we’re friends so we bit the bullet, went into Willie’s Nelson studio and knocked this record out.
Twangville: How long did the recording take you guys?
Dayton: Not long. I think it was like 5 days.
Twangville: That’s old school. In the sixties you would read these stories of a band like Jefferson Airplane. They’d knock out a record in 2 days. By the second record, they had more money and more drugs and then it was 6 months.
Ian Moore: Everything was 1st take.
Dayton: Well. The 1st Sabbath record was recorded in 12?hours.
Moeller: Yep! Wow!
Twangville: They were all broke. They’re like “We can’t afford more time. We have to do this now.” I love that record.
Funny/sad story – I had a friend of mine in my apartment the day that Ozzy died and I was sitting here showing her how to play the opening of the song, Black Sabbath. After the second time I do it, the news comes out that Ozzy died. I’m like, “Did I do that? Was that my fault?”
Moeller: You killed Ozzy!
Twangville: I’m sorry, Ozzy. I didn’t mean to do that.
So how do you work out the best way to combine your skill sets? Normally you’d get together, maybe somebody’s just a singer, just a guitarist. But all of you guys sing and all of you guys play. So how did you work out the best way to be a group?
Moeller: To be honest, it all fell into place quickly. We got together at Jesse’s a couple times, went over all the songs we were each bringing and everyone fell right into place. One guy would go – “Oh, I got the rhythm part on this.” “We’ll both play this”. “We’ll split the solo up here.” It was really natural for sure.
Twangville: That was going to be another question. I was wondering if you guys wrote the album together. It seems you all brought songs and then worked out how you were going to play them.
Moeller: Pretty much. We all brought songs. One song on there – “Everybody Loves You” is the 1st one that I did. Jesse wrote that one, and “I go, man, I could sing that.” and so I hijacked it.
Twangville: So, do you write for each other? Are you thinking “Hey. Maybe Jesse, or Ian sings this better than I do?”
Moore: It happens. I mean, I think the thing about this project is that it’s really organic. So, not that we didn’t think about it, but we didn’t think about it.
Twangville: You didn’t overthink it.
Moore: Yep. We evolved how we’re doing everything. Jesse sent a couple of songs. I sent a couple of songs that Johnny did. I think we all knew what we had and just kind of went in and did it.
Twangville: So, what do you each think the other 2 guys bring to the group? You all sing, you all play guitar, so what’s the other thing your bandmates bring?
Moeller: It’s funny, we’ve all known each other since the late Eighties. Running around Austin, hanging around Antone’s and different clubs in that scene. By the time we got together, we knew what each other was bringing, you know. You know a couple of things I remember. Everyone would just jump on. “Oh, okay, I see what I know, what you’re I know what you’re you know, doing here.” I think we all kind of understand where each other’s coming from going way back.
Dayton: You know, we all have our strengths. I love some of the psychedelic blues stuff that Ian experimented with. I don’t get to do that anymore. But now I do, because I’m in the Headhunters which is awesome for me and I’m being completely selfish when I say that. And there’s Johnny who’s been part of the furniture at Antone’s, I mean, he’s like got that traditional Texas blues, you know, Antone’s sound. And I love all that stuff, and for me it gets me out of my world. That’s what makes this so exciting was. So, if you listen to “Maggie Went Back to Mineola”, that’s Ian ripping that lead. And you know we’re all like bowing to the altar of Billy Gibbons on that.
And then there’s this other kind of Eighties tremelo/Jimmy Vaughn thing that that Johnny’s doing in the back. I wouldn’t have put that stuff on that song if I had recorded it by myself. So, for me, I’m being selfish. I’m doing it because it entertains the hell out of me, man.
Twangville: Who are some of the guitar players and singers that inspired each of you.
Moore: I mean for me the 1st one was Buddy Guy, Albert Collins. You know singing wise when I was a kid, my dad’s 2 favorite singers were Bobby Bland and Aaron Neville, and those are probably 2 of my favorites as well.
Moeller: Oh, yeah, Lightnin’ Hopkins, you know all the great Texas Blues guys from way back. Plus, all 3 of us were bumping around Austin and we all had the same heroes, too, be it a Jimmie Vaughn or Denny Freeman.
Moeller: There’s a lot of great local Austin guys.
Dayton: Bill Campbell, Denny Freeman.
Moeller: Derek O’Brien.
Moore: Mel Brown.
Dayton: Listen, I love Freddie King. He’s a big one. James Burton was huge for me, because James could always, you know, dip his toe into country music or rockabilly. If you think about it, all the guys we’re talking about are people that literally grew up right by us. And so not many people can say that anymore. I mean, our influences are 100% colloquial.
I mean. I remember seeing Stevie with Luann Barton at the Beaumont Cafe when I was a kid, and there’s probably 150 people there, maybe 100. And I remember walking out just thinking, like, “Wow, those English guys really aren’t as good as I thought they were.” Of course I’m a huge fan. I say that in jest and I’m not being judgmental. I love Jimmy Page and Pete Townsend and Eric Clapton and all that stuff. Great songwriters! But I did leave that day thinking to myself, wow! This guy’s from my home state and I’ve never seen anyone play guitar that fierce, you know.
Twangville: I was born in 1971, and I just turned 54 a few weeks ago. Huge guitar fan, huge Texas guitar fan that grew up on Stevie. In fact, a friend of mine for graduation bought me In Step, Coltrane’s Love Supreme, and gave me 50 bucks, and that was my gift.
Another thing and I think it is an important difference, and to be clear, not to rag on the English players. You guys grew up with it. These people were playing around you and you got to see them. You got to meet them, talk to them, learn from them, whereas the English guitar players had to learn from the record. They would get a record, hear it, and try to figure out how to play it and see “What can I do to make this sound?”
Whereas, you’re in a room with some of these people and you’re seeing them perform. You’re watching what they’re playing, and how they’re playing it. “Hey? Let me go back to my house and see if I can do that with my guitar.”
Moore: Feels more like they’re all our uncles or something, you know.
Dayton: Well, especially you, Ian.
Moore: Well, when I was young I got compared to Stevie so much, and Stevie…I mean he gave me my 1st guitar, was a good friend of my dad’s, and I love him. He and I have a lot in common, I think, mainly because I’m a hard player more than a cool player, but the thing I would always tell the press was Stevie was the dude that made it out. That sound was an Austin sound. It wasn’t just him that sounded like that. Everyone thinks Stevie but there were 20 people with that “sound”. I mean Stevie was the best of them, but that style of playing, the combination with all the bends and all that. That’s a sound. It’s not a person. Stevie was the one that made it out, and he was most famous. But I think it is a big part of what we do. It’s a style of playing.
Now that you know, Derek Trucks and Marcus King are getting real big and you can hear them. That’s a Southeastern style. The major pentatonic. What we play is a Texas style.
Twangville: Recently I’ve been watching a lot of like Freddie King stuff. I love all the Kings but I have a certain soft spot for Freddie. I got the record with “Going Down” on it. And I was like, “Oh, this song is amazing!”
Moore: Our blues, that song.
Dayton: That song in particular to me, informed every bit of heavy British rock that came out after it, and it was from Dallas, you know.
Moore: Yup!
Twangville: Well, you know, Texas is so big it’s like it’s a continent by itself. And you have so many guitar players from Texas.
Moeller: True.
Twangville: So who are some of the artists you guys currently listen to now?
Dayton: I mean, you know, I mostly listen to old stuff.
Moore: Me too.
Dayton: But every once in a while, somebody will come around that makes me wake up and think, man. I was a huge Amy Winehouse fan and I’m late to the party on a lot of stuff. I’m not trying to be that guy, you know, but I was early on her. I heard that record, Frank and I was like, “Oh, my God! Like this is like girl group from the sixties meets New York meets Billie Holiday.” You know, real artistry.
But as far as young guitar players, I mean, there’s some killer young guitar players. But my problem with today is the bar has been lowered so down so much by social media. I think it’s great that a 12-year-old can do an impeccable impression of Eddie Van Halen playing Eruption. But if you want to fucking impress me, write Eruption.
I’m so sick of it, that’s all I see. I see it constantly. I see the guy’s got the hat on and the Stratocaster, you know. He’s just aping Stevie, and people are in the crowd freaking out, going “Oh, my God! He sounds just like Stevie Ray Vaughan”.
Anybody who’s has the wherewithal to play guitar and can play can actually mimic somebody’s style and play like it. So, I just don’t hear a lot of new stuff coming out that that blows me away. But there are a few. There are some exceptions to the rule. I mean Samantha Fish is playing great guitar. Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi. I mean, you won’t find a better show or a better singer than Susan out there, but of course they’ve been around for a long time,
I’m still listening to Magic Sam and Johnny Cash. You know what I mean.
Twangville: Nothing wrong with that. If you guys were in my apartment and you looked through my records, half of it is older stuff. One of my favorite guitar solos is Muddy Waters playing in the Babyface Leroy Trio doing Rollin’ and Tumblin’ and it sounds it’s like he’s hammering and bending one note for the whole solo.
Dayton: Do I sound too cynical? What about you guys?
Moeller: You sound right. I agree totally. Every now and then I find someone I go. “Oh, that’s cool”. I was listening to that gal, Natalie Bergman. She’s on Jack White’s label.
She’s got a new record out. It’s kind of like gospelly soul, really retro, but interesting. But I’m the same way. Always go back to Freddie King and Pee Wee Creighton
Moore: I mean. I love Billy Strings. I love Sturgill Simpson.
Moeller: Yeah, there, you go.
Moore: But people are kind of taking all these influences and just pouring it in and jamming on it, you know.
Moeller: Yeah, me, too.
Dayton: I like those 2, too, very much.
Twangville: And that makes sense, because the thing is like, if you’re a songwriter, you’re telling a story. Stories never get old. If you’re telling your story, and you’re writing your songs, that’s going to provoke a certain amount of interest. It’s like when you said you liked Amy Winehouse. Those songs were lived in. While she pulled from certain influences. She wasn’t doing a total copy of somebody else’s stuff. They were things she learned and things she heard, but then things that she brought to the table which makes any music kind of stand out.
Thanks for your time gents. It was a pleasure.
Photo credit: Daniel Sanda
About the author: Paralegal by day - writer and podcaster by night. When does he sleep? Only the Shadow knows!