In my case, I recently went back to memories of listening to music on the AM dial of my transistor radio. Today’s generation have no clue what is like to hold a 4″x4″ box to their ear and soak in triple plays by the likes of Jimi Hendrix, The Four Tops and the Beach Boys. Mix in some Beatles, Sinatra, Ohio Players and local bands and THAT was how I experienced my roots of loving music of all types.

Where this came about was when I got to check out for a second time in 2013 the collaboration of studs from Austin called ‘South Austin Moonlighters’. They played this same cool venue, McGonigel’s Mucky Duck, last January and I’ve been trying to run them down ever since.

SAM consists of two lead guitar players in Josh Zee (Mother Truckers) and Phil Hurley (Stonehoney) who shamelessly trade off mashing good riffs at a drop of a hat witnessed in a new one off their upcoming album called “Old Nature” (I think) out of the gate. Their composition and stage presence with one another seems like they’ve been at it a lot more than they have. Phil Bass (Monte Montgomery Band) is as steady as a rock shifting gears which the band does constantly and he can sing lead-like all of them-very well, too. Lonnie Trevino(Deadman) funks up the bass and really fills the soul role with this squad.

“Can’t Live Without You” was a stomach soothin’ deep down yeah baby of Motown that is sorely missed in today’s music scene. Motown is bad ass period and LT has it goin’ on both facially and as a rocker slidin’ in the middle to wherever the jammin’ be! Introduced as an “apocalyptic love song” SAM stormed into “Holding You Tightly Because the World’s Burnin’ Brightly”. The opening three song mix had the house into it major ! “Rollin’ Man” featured the animated sumbitch who is Phil Hurley with a theatrical mug that has to be seen live to truly appreciate.

New one ,”Once I Saw You”. was handled quite well by Zee and as you can see you almost need a scorecard to chart how talented this quartet is my friends. After “The King of Friday” I could not believe we were only 45 minutes in on this gig! More gems from the night included newbie “She’s So Far Away” a true rumble rouser with a smooth Trevino bouncin’ to flame thrower leads to his left and right, “Honky Tonk Blues”, “Land Mines” with a ’60’s acid trip run on it and drop dead bad to the bone “Night Train” with Lonnie barkin’ and the guitars sparkin’ into the night!

An old cliche about describing a band’s performance is that they truly look like they are enjoying themselves. In this case it shows to this reviewer and in my January review I stated that if these cats did not watch out they might find out this thing could be more than a ‘project’. With their re-mastering of a debut album coming this summer hopefully I believe they may already be there…Now let me go get one of those cool ass square batteries with the double hole prongs to plug into the “dealie” in my transistor radio!

Support your local music venues people!