Despite rising fame, Heathens they remain

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

By Aaron Davis

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-Random and chance might as well be members of The Band of Heathens—even their band name was fluke accident. The collaboration of singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalists Ed Jurdi, Gordy Quist and Colin Brooks, with bassist Seth Whitney and drummer John Chipman, began as a weekly, fly-by-the-seat songwriter night at Momo’s Club in the Live Music Capital of Austin, Texas.
“Yeah, we played a gig before we ever had a rehearsal,” Brooks said, ramping up for their New Year’s Eve show with Robert Earl Keen at the Austin Music Hall. “It was a little reckless, but what the hell, it’s Austin.”

With no central frontman, but rather a collaborative effort that falls somewhere in between The Band and the Black Crowes, The Band of Heathens is stacked with three definitive writers. The sum of its parts has paid off in a big way and despite being offered a five-album record deal, they’ve remained independent throughout.
“If the record deal was two instead of five, we would’ve considered it,” Brooks said. “Bands don’t have to sign deals anymore that tie up creativity. If we took a deal, it would still be colored by the indie movement. I don’t know, we could benefit from some muscle, but we’re just approaching the place where bands sign.”   

The band’s self-titled studio debut (released on its own BOH Records) brought it from relative obscurity to playing 250-plus shows a year, as well as a coveted taping for the 35th Anniversary season of “Austin City Limits.” The album hit No. 1 on the Americana Music Association Radio chart, only the second self-released record to reach the top spot.   

“You work for a long time to make something happen, and it’s happening the whole time, but then people start to feel this and it becomes powerful,” Brooks said of their rise in popularity. “Not one of us grabbed a hold of this project and said ‘We’re going to make this happen.’ For whatever reason, the less I give my self credit for, the better it gets.”

Shortly after The Band of Heathens’s current lineup came into place, they took Best New Band honors at the 2007 Austin Music Awards.  And just a few months ago, it received a nomination for 2009’s New Emerging Artist of the Year at the Americana Music Association Awards.

I had the opportunity to catch the New Year’s Eve set last week. It’s one of these bands that knows how to ignite a three-guitar rocker, or sit down at the piano and bust out a lap steel-laced swamp duster. All three voices have edge and soul, and the musicians take the high road between Southern riff rock and country that swaggers slick and just-enough-slop to make it real. JHW
 
 The Band of Heathens performs 9:30 p.m., Tuesday, at the Mangy Moose. $8. 733-4913.

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The Band of Heathens


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Despite rising fame, Heathens they remain | Planet JH News Article: Music Box

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