Band of Heathens

One Liner: Austin alt. country./Americana band that sounds fantastic
Wikipedia Genre: Americana, folk rock, country, blues, jam rock, roots rock, blue-eyed soul
Spotify Says Similar To: Chris Knight and Ray Wylie Hubbard (pretty damn good company right there)
Home: Austin, Texas

Poster Position: 16
Slot: ?

Thoughts:  What the hell is "blue-eyed soul?"  Wikipedia calls it R&B and soul music performed by white artists.  What the hell is that about?  Is it really necessary to worry about the race of the performer when talking about a genre?  Do we have a Afro-American Rock section in the record store?  Is there a Asian Jazz genre?  Can a white guy with brown eyes play blue-eyed soul music, or is that a different section?  Such a weird thing.  

Anyway, sorry for the detour into a short race discussion, but this band is awesome.  The most recent album, Duende is really very good.  I've been just going back to it over and over all day and its hard to find any reason to move on.
These guys are from Austin, and their Spotify bio says that they formed just by sitting in on each other's sets at a place called Momo's (R.I.P.) and then just started playing together more often.  After a few albums, they've revamped and added a friend of mine from childhood to the lineup (bassist Scott Davis, who also rules on guitar, and used to jam with Hayes Carll) and made this 2017 disc that I think is so good.  I promise I'm not just saying its good because of Scotty.  Go check it out.

First, I'm going to give you the most listened to track from that album, called "Trouble Came Early," with 198k streams.

Live version, with a little bit of an intro, but still a good one.  After this new album, they've got a bunch of other albums.  They start back in 2006 with Live from Momo's, then a Live at Antone's one, then they get going with the studio work on 2008's Band of Heathens, 2009's One Foot in the Ether, 2013's Sunday Morning Record (which is also one of their best), and 2016's Top Hat Crown & the Clapmaster's Son.  
Of particularly strange note, that 2013 album has a song called "Caroline Williams."  Which is only notable to me because that was the maiden name of the wife of my good buddy who comes to ACL with me every year.  I texted him, and they had no clue (OR SO SHE CLAIMS!) about the song, and now she's saying that she never dated either of the main two guys in the band.  LIKELY STORY!

Anyway, pretty good song.  More than likely, Caroline is telling the truth and Jason isn't a Eskimo Brother to any of these guys.  MAYBE!
Their most popular track, by about a million streams, is "Hurricane," from that 2016 album, and boasting about 1.8 million streams.

Those harmonies are gold-plated, baby.  Not their original song, but they still put a hurtin' on it.  Although the crowd kind of looked like mannequins in cool hats, how was no one cutting loose to that when the jam took hold?  The rest of that album sticks with a New Orleans flavor.  Better though is the album just before that, the Sunday Morning Record, which evokes the Beatles ("Since I've Been Home") and The Jayhawks ("Texas") and that soft-hued, golden sound from California in the 70's.  Their live disc shows more of a jam band side than that chilled Dawes vibe.  I'm enjoying it, I'd go see these guys for sure.