Texas Headhunters

If Texas guitar playing had a definitive DNA strand, it would look a lot like the collective resume of Ian Moore, Johnny Moeller and Jesse Dayton. For the past three decades, these virtuosic titans have operated on the cutting edge of roots music, each carving out a distinct, fiercely loyal empire. Moore brought soaring, soulful psychedelia back to the blues; Moeller infused the Austin scene with an uncompromising, razor-sharp funk and string-bending ferocity; and Dayton injected punk-rock adrenaline into the heart of classic outlaw country. These three incandescent talents had the bright idea to form an alliance, Texas Headhunters. In an era where roots music has become painfully manicured and defanged for mass consumption, Moore, Moeller and Dayton just plug in and blast through the screen. The beauty of the band is this: They aren't trying to sell you a mythologized, pristine version of the Lone Star State; they’re giving you the unfiltered grease, the high volume and the sweat of that legendary Austin nightclub Antone’s, where all three made their bones. They play with the kind of dangerous, competitive fire that only old friends who have nothing left to prove can cook up. This is a rowdy, back-alley situation that feels less like a carefully rehearsed musical performance and more like a beautifully lawless throwdown you’d stumbled into at two in the morning. Pity the band that tries to follow these guys. They’ve burned up the stage behind them.