Texas Headhunters Promise Triple Trouble

Back in the ‘60s, someone came up with the term “supergroup,” probably a record company promotions guy.  The first band it was applied to was Cream (as in “cream of the crop”), comprised of guitarist Eric Clapton (formerly of the Yardbirds and John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers), bassist Jack Bruce (Bluesbreakers and the Graham Bond Organisation) and drummer Ginger Baker (Graham Bond Organisation.  Having established themselves as among the best of the best on their respective instruments, it only stood to reason that a band comprised of such hot shots would be a huge success.

Cream sold a bunch of records, so the supergroup concept was adopted by collections of artists who had achieved success in different bands but not so much as solo artists.  Hence Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, an aggregation made up of former members of Buffalo Springfield (Stills and Young), the Byrds (Crosby) and the Hollies (Nash).  And though all members had formidable solo careers, let’s not forget the Highwaymen (Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson) and the Traveling Wilburys (Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne).

So it was tempting, when word of the Texas Headhunters’ formation began to circulate, to pull out the “supergroup” tag, since the new band represents a triple threat of Texas guitar players:  Ian Moore, Jesse Dayton (Road Kings) and Johnny Moeller (Fabulous Thunderbirds).  But in the case of the Headhunters, the group’s formation more involved some colleagues getting together to have some fun rather than a marketing strategy.  Granted, the band has a new album out (Texas Headhunters) and is on the road promoting it (the Headhunters play at the Heights Theater on Friday, October 24), but it all started out with the idea of having a good time.

“Jesse said, ‘Why don’t me and you and Ian get together and shoot some songs around, just to see what happens. It’d be fun,’” Moeller recalls, speaking via Zoom from Austin.  “He was always referencing that Showdown! album with Albert Collins, Robert Cray and Johnny Copeland.  He goes, ‘I was always a big fan of that.  I could see the three of us [doing] our own version of that.’

“So we went in and threw a couple of songs around.  It went really good.  It went really easy and smooth.  But we were all so busy with the other things we were doing. So a year went by, and Jesse kept circling back around going, ‘Man, I think we should just go into the studio and make a record.  Let’s just go in there and do it.’   So we went in for five days at Pedernales, Willie’s studio, back in February of this year and just did it.”

With slightly less than a week available to record, the trio headed into the studio with songs already written and ready to go.  “We each brought three or four tunes in,” Moeller says.  “We got together at Jesse’s house a couple of nights before we went into the studio, just the three of us, and showed each other our songs, and everything just fell into place.”

Guitar players are, by and large, a competitive lot, and some have a bit of a gunslinger mentality.  Is there much of that going on with the Headhunters?  Moeller considers the question and says, “It’s a very healthy competitiveness.  It’s funny.  Most of the tunes that each guy brought in, no one was like, ‘Oh, this is my thing.  I’m gonna really rip it on this!’  On two or three of the [songs] I do, I just play rhythm and sing, and those guys divide up the solos.  And vice-versa.”

A situation involving three guitars can sound like hell in a hurry, particularly if each musician doesn’t have a distinctive voice on his instrument.  What steers the Headhunters away from that sort of scenario?  “I think the thing that keeps it out of the guitar-jerk realm is that [the album] is really song-related.  There’s great guitar all over it, but we all wanted to have great songs.  So there’s lots of back-up vocals and catchy hooks.”

Though this is the first time that Moeller, Moore and Dayton have formally worked together, all three have been in each others’ orbit in and around Austin for some time.  “When I moved to Austin around ’89-’90, Ian blew up way back then, right away.  He was kind of a local rock star.  And Jesse was in a different world, more country, kind of rockabilly.  And I got to see those guys all the time at [Austin blues club] Antone’s and the Continental Club.  We crossed paths a lot.  We knew each other, but not super well.”

Another thing that all three share is an affinity for the Texas guitar players that they heard during their formative years.  This connection contributes to the Headhunters having a common musical language.  “It easily, quickly turns into a love-fest when we start talking about local guys that we ended up watching.  Like Denny Freeman or John X. Reed or Derek O’Brien.  And we all love Lightin’ Hopkins and Gatemouth Brown.”

To paraphrase a common expression, Moeller wasn’t born in Austin, but he got there as fast as he could.  Born in Fort Worth and raised in Denton, Moeller and his brother started making trips to Austin to visit their father when they were teenagers.  “I’ll never forget, he took us to Antone’s on a Tuesday night – it was probably 1987 – and Clifford [Antone] was there, and my dad wound up next to him at the bar, and he told him, ‘My boys are big blues fans.  They’re all about it.  They play guitar and drums.’”

Moeller continues his recollection: “The next thing I know, Clifford’s on stage going, ‘Let’s get this kid from Denton up here!’  I jumped up and played, and at the end of the night, he gave me his card and wrote, ‘Admit any time, C.J. Antone.’  He was so supportive.  Every time I was there, he would get me up to play or introduce me to somebody.”

Though he grew up playing Led Zeppelin, Beatles and Stones, Moeller says that he was always drawn to the blues.  “It just seems more real, the root of it all.  I like a lot of different stuff. Rock and roll music, jazz, soul music.  It all kind of comes from the blues.”

As the music talk continues, Moeller recalls a pivotal moment in his musical education.  “There was this Lightnin’ Hopkins record from the ‘50s – I still remember riding my bike across town and getting it – and I put it on and went, ‘Oh my God!  This is so rock and roll.’   I used to smoke cigarettes with all the guys who were punk rockers, that were into the Cramps.  And I immediately went, ‘This is more punk rock than what you’ve got going!’ 

“[Hopkins] went to New York City, and some jazz label, maybe Verve, was going to put out [his] record.  They go, ‘OK, Lightnin’, here’s the studio, and this guy here is your producer.’  And Lightnin’ goes, ‘So you’re my producer?  Why don’t you start by producing me a whiskey!’”

The Texas Headhunters will perform at 8 p.m. Friday, October 24, at the Heights Theater, 339 W. 19^th.  For more information, call 214-272-8346 or visit TheHeightsTheater.com.  $38 and up.

For more information on the Texas Headhunters, visit thxx.live.

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