Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Click to hear episode #111 (time = 23:30, size = 32.4 mb)

Take three singer-songwriters, throw them into an Austin nightclub one night a week, add a band, and you *might* get lucky enough to end up with a group like The Band of Heathens. Ed Jurdi, Gordy Quist, and Colin Brooks met after establishing residency gigs on the same night of the week at Momo’s, a popular Austin spot. They’d all had runs leading their own bands, as well as working a sidemen for other performers. Playing together was likely just a matter of time.

Their new record, “Top Hat Crown and the Clapmaster’s Son”, is their third, though it’s their first studio effort. (They’re known for their live shows.) In this interview backstage at Santa Cruz’s Kuumbwa Jazz Center – behind the world’s most slammiest door – they discuss how they formed the band, the accident that led to their name, and how they discovered – and covered – the old Levon Helm song, “Hurricane”, which you can hear in this episode.

Here out west, you can see The Band of Heathens this September. They’re one of the acts on the second half of the American River Music Festival in Lotus, CA on Sunday September 18. See americanrivermusic.org for details.

Podcast note: I mentioned I’ll be playing at Aromas Day near the end of this episode. Details are confirmed, and I’ll be on the downtown stage from noon – 1:00 pm, accompanied by Dayan Kai on mandolin. Details are on my Shows page.