Musicians Please Don't Move To Texas

I love Texas! Well, most of it anyway. The problem is that Texas and it's culture seeps into your skin no matter how much you fight it.I have a friend from New Zealand who moved here, married a Texas girl, was bar-b-queing ribs, and drinking Shiner in what seemed like a matter of months! Heck, growing up I worked as hard as possible to get rid of my stupid accent but even I broke down and got a pick up truck for my very first car. For the record though, I have never been "muddin". I realize that most people that have a full set of teeth and know that Miller High Life is NOT actually a champagne have no clue what "muddin" is; so just look it up in the urban dictionary so that you have a point of reference. I guess the point is, that when Erika Wennerstrom of the Heartless Bastards announced that she officially moved down here, my initial thought was "Yes!!! Now my stalking just got a whole lot easier!" I never even thought about the fact that she would also fall prey to the lusts of cowboy boots and Kevin Fowler!

Their first two albums are grungy blues albums that include gritty songs about drinking too much, being in love, or being in love and drinking too much and getting pissed off as a result of it.Then came their third album, The Mountain, which she made while getting over a bad break up from a relationship that lasted what seemed like forever (I got this info from an interview not from my made up stalking,  I promise). Excellent album and maybe even their best, however the crossover to country was just starting. I embraced the country influence because this album included what are now two of my favorite songs of theirs, The Mountain and Sway. Their shows still had incredible energy and her voice is amazing. Combine Janis Joplin with distortion and you have my attention no matter what else is happening around me.

Then came their latest album. I was entertaining a client of mine and his wife who were in Austin for the first time ever. And as with most first timers, they wanted to experience live music.Well it's not my first time here and I know that 80% of the live music that is played here in a non festival setting sounds like covers of The Bacon Brothers band. It just so happened that The Heartless Bastards were playing this same night and I convinced them that this will be the best show going on and it's at a pretty cool venue, La Zona Rosa. When in reality La Zona Rosa is just an ok venue but hey I'm sales. When we walked in, I saw at least 5-7 Stetson brims, rocky mountain jeans, and mouths full of snuff! It was like I had teleported back to my hometown! Then the first 5 or 6 songs we hear is their new country stuff and it was all slow and boring! What happened to my band??? Why was Erika punishing me??? My client's much younger wife was getting bored which means that he was about to kill me! And then finally they play The Mountain, followed by Sway, and then some of their older stuff. Phew! Everyone in the place seemed to pick it up a bit and we were all rocking including my guests. Then they played some of their more rocking songs of their new album like Down in the Canyon and Simple Feeling. The thing is there aren't enough songs like this on the new album. Why couldn't they have stayed in Ohio and not lost their true rock roots? Oh well, what I am getting at is, that if you see The Heartless Bastards pop up on your festival schedule, please check them out as it will be a good show. The only thing is that they have regressed back to being to a day time drinking band when they were well on their way to festival headliner. I still list them and their shows as pretty FRESH!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAJOXrnPIUg&NR=1&feature=endscreen