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Austin, Texas-based Heather Rae and the Moonshine Boys play music for purists and partiers, punks and potheads.
They sound like a juke-joint combo in a haze from days gone by, loaded with corn liquor and high on country, bluegrass and blues. See them live, and youll hear them channeling straight-ahead rockabilly by Patsy and Johnny.
Then out come their originals, from their debut album Just a Shot o Shine (Truxton Records, 2005). Some songs seem warmly familiar, and you think youve heard them before, until you remember they were written by a couple of old punks in the twenty-double-oughts. (Check out Born to Raise Hell and Death Valley.)
Citing influences that range from the Carter Family to X, Heather Rae and the Moonshine Boys delve deep into the roots of American music. Deftly changing styles from the scorching bluegrass of The Stanley Brothers to the two-step shuffle of Loretta Lynn to the 30s swing of Trixie Smith, their sets of mostly original music sweep the listener away to anywhere the music sends them.
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It all started one drunken night in 98 at the Tropicana Motel in Yuma, Arizona. Heather Rae Johnson, Shannon Marino and original guitarist Tom Sanderson (Long Gone Trio) were all three members of Tempe, Arizona rockabilly outfit Exit 56. Nobody got lucky that night, except for teaching Heather Rae a few guitar chords to Blue Moon of Kentucky.
Thus begat the Moonshine Boys. Along with Heather Rae's heartbroke vocals, searing fiddle and solid acoustic guitar, and Shannon Marinos slappin upright bass and hollerin songs, the likes of Mario Moreno (Forbidden Pigs, Varmits, Ramblers) and Kevin Daly (Trophy Husbands, Grave Danger) have been heard laying down tasty jazz licks and finger-lickin pickin on lead guitar. Mr. Daly is also the lead guitar on Just a Shot o Shine. Their current Moonshine Boys lineup features Jeremy Wade (W.T. Special, Flipside Den) as the final third of the trio.
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Heather Rae and the Moonshine Boys crept up on the unsuspecting Arizona scene to be nominated as one of the best Roots/Americana bands in the Phoenix New Times Music Showcase in 2001, 2002 and 2005. Their live Opry-style performances and DIY underground tactics have gained them fans from all walks of life.
"Heather Rae and her Moonshine Boys play hillbilly music with a difference, covering everything from rockabilly to dreamy jazz balladry" --Gilbert Garcia, Phoenix New Times, April 2002.
"Heather Rae and her Moonshine Boys--playing with a new guitarist--got one of the best crowd responses of the showcase when they tore it up at McDuffys. Dancing, dazzled fans loved the set so much that they managed to cheer the group back for a one-song encore, a cover of Johnny Cash's Cry Cry Cry." --Michele Laudig, Phoenix New Times, April 21, 2005.
"(Heather Rae's) singing makes me want to eat my ears." --Jeff Pettit
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The band relocated to Austin, TX in August, 2005.
Their debut album, Just a Shot o Shine on Truxton Records, is available now through the website and at local Tempe, AZ and Austin, TX record stores.
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