Texas Headhunters – Texas Headhunters
Blu Elan Records
12 songs – 41 minutes
Amongst guitar enthusiasts, there has been a fair amount of excitement over the last few months about the forthcoming debut album from the Texas Headhunters, featuring Ian Moore, Johnny Moeller and Jesse Dayton, three of the Lone Star State’s most highly-respected plank spankers. Well, the album has now landed, and the good news is that the anticipation was entirely justified. As one might expect, this self-titled album features plenty of powerful, angular guitar playing. Even better, the songs are top notch too.
Moore, Moeller and Dayton are amongst the last generation of musicians taken under the wing of the late, great Clifford Antone. As a result, they know both how to lay down blazing solos, but also how to play to the song. Aided by Jay Moeller and Nico Leophonte on drums and Anthony Farrell on bass, the trio cut the record over five days at Willie Nelson’s Pedernales Studio in Spicewood, Texas, and the result is a blazing, groove-filled roadhouse delight.
Each musician contributed songs to Texas Headhunters in addition to producing it with Steve Chadie. The album opens with Moore’s raucous John Lee Hooker-inspired “Pocket” before they raise the tempo and the temperature with Dayton’s ZZ Top-influenced “Maggie Went Back To Mineola”, which even contains a classic Gibbons-esque key change for the guitar solo. “Everybody Loves You (When You’re Down)” has hints of a SRV shuffle in the verse, but so much else going on that it is both completely Texan and yet completely new. On each track, the guitars intertwine beautifully, but the musicians never tread on each other’s musical toes. On the rocky ballad, “Kathleen”, it is probably Moore’s aching vocals that seize the attention, while on Moeller’s entertaining shuffle, “Fool, Don’t Play With Fire”, the interaction between the guitars is a definitely a highlight.
Each player has a distinctive, individual guitar style, albeit one baked in the Texan sun, and different yet complementary vocal styles. There is also a joyous abandon to many of the tracks, reflecting both the long-term friendships and the abiding mutual respect between the men. There is real wit as well as deep musical sensibility in the structure of the songs, particularly on the nearly-instrumental “Headhunters’ Theme” and entirely instrumental “Burnin’ Daylight”, which closes a hugely impressive album.
Elsewhere, “Gun Barrel Boogie” has an irresistible slide guitar riff, while “Independence Day” is blues-rock at its finest. “Seeing Around Corners” nods towards Guitar Slim (a rare non-Texan influence on this release) with some of the finest guitar playing and singing on the record. Moore’s “Who Will Your Next Love Be?” takes the band in more of a soul direction, while Moeller’s “Gimme Some Love” blends blues, soul and rock into a single track.
The Texas Headhunters may be a side project for three highly in-demand musicians but, on the evidence of this album, one has to hope there is more to come. Texas Headhunters is a love letter to Texas and the musicians who inspired the band. It is also a simply fabulous album in its own right. Gritty, dirty, muscular and quite superb.
