This past week, the Americana Music Association, announced the nominees for the 2009 AMA Awards and Honors to be held in Nashville in mid September. ¬ In that announcement came word that the Austin based band “The Band of Heathens” is nominated for the New & Emerging Artist category. With that came some of my own personal satisfaction in having a chance to see this band develop over the past few years. I wanted to try and capture my journey along the road of The Heathens. This band continues to not only amaze me musically and in addition they have built a model that all musicians can learn from and have managed to do it while keeping their own ego’s in check (well mostly)

The band originally launched in 2006 as a side project for a group of singer/songwriters out of Austin: Brian Keane, Gordy Quist, Colin Brooks & Ed Jurdi. At the time, I caught a few of the early on shows to support one of my personal favorite songwriters, Brian Keane. Brian was fresh off the release of his debut album “I Ain’t Even Lonely” and his shows would often include band mates: Colin Brooks, bass player Seth Whitney and drummer Eldridge Goins. I knew of Colin back from my days of catching numerous Guy Forsyth shows to which Colin played accompanying guitar. I was always impressed with the fact that Guy even had a guitarist since if you’d ever seen Guy, you knew he had some damn fine musicians (going back to the days of the early Asylum Street Spankers). In addition, Keane turned me on to Gordy Quist’s solo release entitled “Songs Play Me”.

In 2006, I started to see the band grow into the Band of Heathens made up of four super talented young songwriters: Brian Keane, Gordy Quist, Ed Jurdi and Colin Brooks while being backed by Seth and Eldridge. They started playing a Wednesday night gig at the club Momo’s in Austin and after a misprint in the local paper deemed the group as “The Heathens” the name stuck. I would catch their shows around San Antonio when I could, as it was my chance to catch Brian Keane. For a music fan, this group was overwhelming with a tremendous range of talent up on stage all contributing to help out each other’s songs. The band then released their first CD entitled “Live at Momo’s” which cemented this idea of real-time band collaboration.

In 2007, something happened. Brian Keane packed his bags and moved out to Nashville. Eldridge, the flamboyant drummer took off. At this point, I was convinced the heathens would disband but much to my surprise they picked up one hell of a new drummer in John Chipman (previously with Jon Dee Graham). The group slimmed down to three singers: Gordy, Colin and Ed and rounded out with Seth and John backing the group. In March (2007) we invited the group out to our AmericanaRoots.com Showcase during SXSW after picking up the “Best New Band” award from the Austin Music Awards. These guys played any and every show rounding out with at least a dozen or so events they played that week in Austin.

In 2008, the band released a Live at Antone’s CD & DVD followed by their first ever studio album entitled “The Band of Heathens” which in my mind put these guys on the map for good. This was their highly anticipated first studio album with tracks from Ed, Gordy & Colin as all their previous music was only available on live cd’s. The studio transformed these guys into something quite amazing. This band had two years worth of non-stop playing plus two live cd’s behind their belts. This experience translated into a great blend of music, which saw tremendous success on Americana Radio across the country. Also in 2008, the band returned for a second time to our AmericanaRoots.com showcase during SXSW. In addition, the Americana Music Association invited the band out to Nashville for their yearly Americana Music Conference to speak about their band model. Without getting into too much boring business detail, let me just say that The Band of Heathens are a model in which all up and coming musicians can learn from. The idea of combining three singer/songwriters up on stage may seem like a disaster to many but given the right set of people, it’s a smart and efficient way of distributing your music in a live experience.

In summary, this band has earned everything that has come their way. Gordy, Ed, Colin, Seth and John have the miles to prove it. This wasn’t a band that was 3 years in the making, it’s a combination of many years of going down the singer/songwriter route and collectively stumbling upon a group of somewhat like-minded peers and building a band around everyone’s creativity. Over the past three years, I have seen these musicians elevate not only their stage presence but freely contribute to each other’s songs which equates to a much more rounded out sound. The harmonies, commanding of the stage and all around enthusiasm to have fun translates to a good time anywhere you see them. While I’m sure the Band of Heathens will continue to evolve over the years, it would be hard to see anyone of these guys leave the band. Given my past history though, I’m pretty sure the idea of The Band of Heathens may make this a perpetual band for many years to come.

As a AMA member, I will humbly request that you consider your vote to these band for “New & Emerging Artist” at this year’s AMA awards. This category this year is by far the toughest with The Belleville Outfit, Justin Townes Earl, Sarah Borges and The Band of Heathens. Each band would be a great selection but for this year my vote goes to the Band of Heathens.

To learn more about The Band of Heathens, visit their website at http://www.BandOfHeathens.com and check out LoneStarMusic.com for all of the BoH’s catalog of CD’s.