 "Photo: Courtesy photo")
Grab your jeans and put on boots because the Heathens are coming to town Saturday. What started out as three separate sets at Austin club Momo’s developed into the erratic bunch known as ‘The Band of Heathens.’
“We didn’t really try to form a band,” said Colin Brooks, singer, songwriter and guitarist.
Brooks along with singer and songwriters Ed Jurdi and Gordy Quist originally performed sets at Momo’s on Wednesday nights before a suggestion that they collaborate was brought to their attention. The trio became one of Austin’s favorite groups and when a misprint in a local paper billed the act as “The Heathens,” the moniker stuck. The band soon added bassist Seth Whitney and drummer John Chipman.
“It’s nothing that anybody dreamed up, it just kind of happened,” Brooks said.
The self-proclaimed early 70s rock band has been compared to the Black Crowes and the Band and Little Feat. The Heathens have just released their first studio album called “One Foot in the Ether” in September. The amalgamation of country and soul, rhythm and blues and Appalachian sounds make for a unique listen from the Austin band.
“Every record we’ve put out is better than the last,” Brooks said.
Brooks describes “One Foot in the Ether” as more electric than the live CDs the band has put out while enhancing the already evident ‘down-home feel.’ The band’s albums have received a large response in Europe and the light political message of the latest record has kept the Band of Heathens in the spotlight. The band has been touring for months performing more than 250 shows in the past year.
“One time we drove off with the fuel pump still in the side of the van,” said Brooks.Brooks recounts another tour story in Nashville, when the band was driving in the van and an oil tanker in front of them hit a horse then exploded, causing flames to shoot up in the air.
Then once in Colorado the band’s van was driving up a mountain pass and when they stopped halfway to put chains on the tires, a semi truck was coming down the pass and barely squeaked by.
But Brooks’ favorite times were when he was in Texas, such as when the band performed at Austin City Limits in 2009 to a crowd of more than 6,000 screaming people.
“It was a beautiful moment,” Brooks said.
The singer said Texas is the best place he’s ever lived, both socially and musically.“The live music community is withering in our culture in our country, but Texas has a blockade against that,” Brooks said. “It’s really fertile ground for making music and though sometimes narrow, it’s widening to include bands like us.”
The Band of Heathens is original with the bluesy instrumentation, which includes the banjo, piano, lowery organ, air organ, mandolin, lap steel and the dobro. The funky beats and lack of set lists or planned programming in the shows also display the eclectic energy of the band.
“The band doesn’t like to do things safely,” Quist said. “Random and Chance might actually be named as extra band members in the liner notes somewhere.”
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