![\"096\"](\"http:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/096-1-200x300.jpg\")
<\/a>Mike and the Moonpies\u2019 music is a tasty blend of traditional country stylings with a touch of Southern Rock. The interplay of guitar, pedal steel and piano leads behind Mike\u2019s lonesome cowboy lyrics makes for an original sound in a traditional genre. The Moonpies avoid that temptation to join the ranks of pop country bands clogging up the airwaves today.<\/p>\nThe band spent a good portion of the evening on tunes from the latest disc,\u201cMockingbird\u201d, including the title cut and \u201cSouth First Boulevard\u201d. \u201cMe and Hayes\u201d, off of \u201cThe Hard Way\u201d alludes to a changing of the guard from Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings to Hayes Carll and Mike and the Moonpies to carry on the country traditions. Mike dedicated his song \u201cSay It Simply\u201d to Johnny Bush and followed it with the pedal steel tear jerker, \u201cNever Leaving Texas\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr. Harmeier paused long enough to reverently \u201cdo one for the Hagg\u201d, covering Merle Haggard\u2019s \u201cTonight We\u2019ll Kick The Footlights Out Again\u201d, the first of several covers amongst an ample fare of original tunes. Most of the evening was spent on the traditional country songs but the Southern Rock side of the Moonpies peeked its head out on \u201cThe Hard Way\u201d with a Dicky Betts style guitar lead.<\/p>\n
Songwriter, Mike Harmeier is unmistakably the band leader. From our side-of-the-stage perspective we could see the cues he gave the other players, like a nod to Catlin Rutherford on lead guitar or an appreciative grin to Carbone after a tasty piano riff. The band seemed to be having as much fun as the audience was as they played their way to the end of the set.<\/p>\n
The band covered Waylon\u2019s \u201cAre You Sure Hank Done It This Way\u201d and left the stage in preparation for a planned encore (not to say that it wasn\u2019t called for, because it certainly was). Mike started it with a quiet tune on acoustic with Zach Moulton\u2019s pedal steel and Rutherford\u2019s electric. They ended the night with a full band cover of Rusty Weir\u2019s \u201cDon\u2019t It Make You Wanna Dance\u201d.<\/p>\n
It was truly a satisfying country music show in the finest Texas tradition. Seeing it in Mike Harmeier\u2019s hometown of Tomball made it just that much more special. I do not doubt that if Hank Williams Sr. were alive today that he would be playing music with a band a lot like the Moonpies.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Written by James Killen Eddie Ferranti invited me to join him for Mike and the Moonpie\u2019s Wednesday show at Tomball\u2019s Main Street Crossing. Wednesdays are \u201cTexas Mix Live\u201d nights at the Crossing, where the first hour of the show is recorded for broadcast on 105.3FM. This Wednesday was old home week for Mike Harmeier here… <\/p>\n
Read More<\/i><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-concert-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2927"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2932,"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2927\/revisions\/2932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} ![\"026\"](\"http:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/026-1.jpg\")
<\/a>Eddie Ferranti invited me to join him for Mike and the Moonpie\u2019s Wednesday show at Tomball\u2019s Main Street Crossing. Wednesdays are \u201cTexas Mix Live\u201d nights at the Crossing, where the first hour of the show is recorded for broadcast on 105.3FM. This Wednesday was old home week for Mike Harmeier here in Tomball as well. The show was attended by Mike\u2019s grandmother, among other family members and family friends that remembered Mike back in grade school. Everybody was settling in for a great evening of country music.<\/p>\n