Band of Heathens

 88.1 KDHX Presents:

Sunday, April 22 • Doors 7pm • Show 8pm • $12 Flat • All Ages • Buy Tickets

w/ Lera Lynn

This year has been a year of making noise and news for the Band of Heathens. With 200-plus show dates, a fifth anniversary celebration, appearances at Lollapalooza and other top national festivals and a taping of Austin City Limits with Elvis Costello, it is remarkable that the Heathens even found time to write and record a new studio album, but they did.

The result is Top Hat Crown & the Clapmaster’s Son, a surprising, multi-faceted gem of a disc. Their third studio album and the fifth release overall, Top Hat Crown displays the wide range of classic influences fans and critics have come to admire in the band, yet they’ve added, built and grown. Producer George Reiff, celebrated for his work with the Black Crowes’ Chris Robinson, the Courtyard Hounds and Ray Wylie Hubbard, tended to the album’s vibe and spirit, which is reaching, rocking, bluesy, funky and enjoyable as hell, from its rocking opening to its serene acoustic conclusion.

The Band of Heathens earned its reputation right away as a devastating live band, chiefly thanks to the three strong voices up front, sometimes taking sensational leads, sometimes locked together in big, juicy harmony. The show’s-the-thing focus led them down a somewhat unorthodox path: launching their recorded career with two live discs before they ever went into the studio to make a “formal” album. First came the obvious Live at Momo’s. Next they spread their wings and flew, well, a few blocks, tracking a live CD/DVD concert film at world-famous Antone’s.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 6th, 2010 at 5:55 pm and is filed under Past Shows. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.