Texas Headhunters @ Old RockHouse
Johnny Moeller’s guitar playing is full of voodoo and lighting. The floating bent notes, delicately singing phrases, bursts of staccato picking, and ringing piano-like chords that he sculpts into vibrant solos bring all the beauty, power, and mystery of the blues to life. Yet he’s impossible to pigeonhole. Although Moeller’s the latest in a long line of six-string wizards to hail from Austin, he upholds the Texas music tradition not by imitating the licks of legendary Lone Star State players who’ve influenced him — like Albert Collins, Lightnin’ Hopkins, the Vaughan Brothers — but by being a maverick. “The truth of the matter is I’ve never really tried to emulate anybody else,” explains Moeller, who’s wrapping up a daring new solo album. “There are lots of great guitar players who inspired me, and singers and saxophone players, too. But I don’t like to limit myself to purely one style of music. I have my own thing, which is blues based, and then I like to mix in everything else I love: soul, jazz, funk and rock ‘n’ roll.”
Jesse Dayton is an American, Austin, Texas-based Americana artist, best known for his guitar contributions to albums by country musicians including Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Willie Nelson. He is also notable for his collaborations with horror film director Rob Zombie, who has commissioned Dayton on multiple occasions to record music to accompany his films. Dayton was born in Beaumont, Texas, where he was raised on the music of George Jones, Hank Williams, and Lefty Frizzell, all the while harboring an affinity for the spirit of punk with bands like the Clash. After touring with two rockabilly bands, the Road Kings and the Alamo Jets, Dayton ventured off into solo territory, recording his Americana-chart-topping record Raisin’ Cain. Since then Dayton has released several different solo albums and worked with a variety of country rock artists, most notably Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash on Right for the Time after Jennings injured his picking thumb and required a guitar stand-in.
Ian Moore (born August 8, 1968 in Berkeley, California, USA) is a guitarist and singer-songwriter from Austin, Texas. He studied violin as a child but later switched to guitar. His music contains elements of psychedelic rock, soul, folk, rock and roll, world music and blues, with deep literary influences. After playing guitar in Joe Ely’s touring band and appearing on one studio album, he spent time in Austin with his own groups, first Ian Moore and Moment’s Notice, then The Ian Moore Band. While attending The University of Texas at Austin, Moore played in Austin regularly, quickly developing into one of Austin’s largest draws.