The Hacienda Brothers

01.10.2007 -- Feature by: C. Eric Banister

A timeless town in many ways, even the public clocks can�t seem to reach a consensus on the hour. Cultures blend and merge, becoming spicier, better, than when they arrived.

Perhaps only in such an enchanted borderland could the Hacienda Brothers come to be. The band is the brainchild of two journeymen musicians: Former Paladin front man/guitarist Dave Gonzalez, and accordionist/guitarist/singer Chris Gaffney, who led the band Cold Hard Facts and plays sometimes still with Dave Alvin�s Guilty Men.

What�s Wrong With Right, the Hacienda Brothers� strong sophomore release, scored a spot on any number of �best of� Americana lists in 2006. Driven by accordion and guitars, punctuated by keyboards, the group deftly blends spaghetti Western tremolo riffs, soulful vocals, classic and fresh love songs, boot-scooting honky-tonk energy and border instrumentation into a brew as potent as mescal.

�{quotes}Tucson, just the way things are there, is a part of how we sound, no doubt about it{/quotes},� said Gonzalez, calling from his home in San Diego County, Calif. �It�s such a beautiful, inspiring place. We made our original demos there, trying to capture that.�

�Western Soul� is what producer Dan Penn dubbed their sound when he heard those Hacienda demos.

Penn is a legendary producer and songwriter of the old soul school, producing classics for such artists as Aretha Franklin and Solomon Burke. A couple of his best, �It Tears Me Up� and �Cry Like a Baby,� are revisited by the Haciendas on �What�s Wrong With Right,� along with several new compositions by Penn, Gaffney, Gonzalez and other �Brothers.�

Gonzalez confesses to a fierce case of nerves when he first sent Hacienda demos to Penn. The two met years ago in Europe when Gonzalez was playing a festival with the Paladins, and Penn was playing with his songwriting partner, Spooner Oldham. Gonzalez and Penn hit it off nearly instantly with a shared love of old music and vintage vehicles.

�Dan told me he wasn�t into emails or calls or letters,� said Gonzalez. �He said what he was into was hanging out. So I didn�t quite know how he�d react to getting these demos. But Dan called me up and said, �Wow, this thing knocked me out. I would be glad to invite you to Nashville. But I�d rather come to Tucson, because there is a sound you guys got that is not West Coast, it is not Nashville. What it sounds like it Western Soul.� And that sounded right to us. So he came to hang out with us in Tucson.�

Soulful and gritty

Gonzalez and Gaffney first met in Los Angeles in the ‘80s, through their friend, Dave Alvin.

�I dug Chris. He was a cool accordion player, and he was kind of gruff and had some real soul,� said Gonzalez. �Yeah, he sounded soulful and gritty, but he knew just how not to overdo it. And he’s funny as hell, too. Not like a comedian, but he just gets off these lines that keeps everyone laughing.�

Gaffney and Gonzalez performed together a few years ago at mutual friend Jeb Schoonover�s birthday party. Schoonover is a Tucson-based music promoter and radio programmer, and now the band�s manager and the executive producer of �What�s Wrong With Right.�

�Jeb and I had been friends since I started going there in the �80s with my other band,� said Gonzalez. �We were always kicking this idea of doing a country thing around. We�d both said, �You know who could nail this stuff? Chris!� He has the perfect voice for what we had in mind.�

The three decided they would at least make a great album. Gonzalez said, �Whether we became a full-fledged band, sticking together years and years, that I did not know. I just wanted to do songs with Chris, and play and produce and do all the other stuff I couldn�t really do with my other band. I wanted to make at least one great album, whatever else we did.�

So far, they’ve made two great albums, and have, said Gonzalez, �… Become a pretty damned good road band, too.�

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Hacienda sound

Gonzalez�s California home, which Schoonover dubbed �The Honky-tonk Hacienda,� played a part in both naming the band, as well as shaping their sound.

�We really are like family. We called each other �bro,� you know, and one day, looking for a name, I said, �We�re the Hacienda Bros.� And Dan said, �If you change that to Hacienda Brothers, it might just stick. It did.�

Gonzalez says The Honky-tonk Hacienda has two turntables on the living room table, as well as a Seeburg Jukebox in the parlor, crammed with fine 45s.

�I�m probably going on 20 years with this old Seeburg juke,� Gonzalez said. �For a time, it was my only turntable. The way it sounds, the way it plays those old records, is the way they are supposed to sound—the way the bass sounds on there, and those vocals up front? That is a big inspiration for the songs I write, that juke sound. Dan made records that way, too.�

Also helping to shape their eventual sound were the road trips Gaffney and Gonzalez took together across the desert between Southern California and Tucson.

�I had this old DeSoto then, with only an 8-track, and we�d go between California and there, cruising at 55, listening to Waylon or �Super-Fly� or �The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,� depending what we were in the mood for, depending where the sun was at in the sky at the time. Just me and Chris, on that road together in that old car, singing together, figuring the harmonies out, tossing these songs around.�

Border music

The band recorded its demos, as well as its first two albums, at the Cavern Recording Studios in central Tucson.

�It�s a good room,� said Gonzalez. �When I first saw it, I just walked in there with an old nylon-string guitar, walked around strumming, hearing how it sounded. I saw the big analog board and old tape deck and knew it would be good.�

�It worked in there, Chris laying down a lot of accordion, and me using a lot of baritone guitar. ... {quotes}But you know, for a of blues people we�re too country, and for a lot of soul people were too country{/quotes},� said Gonzalez. �I�m back in the same old bag as I was with my old band � too bluesy for the rockabilly crowd, too rockabilly for the blues crowd. But that�s part of what we want to do � work between those cracks and find what�s good.�

Gonzalez planned to spend time with Gaffney in Tucson at he end of 2006, to write and pick songs for a third album.

�We did 20,000 miles this year,� said Gonzalez. �Not bad. But eventually, we�d like to settle in Tucson, maybe have a residency gig there or something. At least for now, we want to get out there with a couple of guitars, cruise around, hang out, and get inspired.

�Dan�s talking about our doing the next album in Nashville, or someplace back East,� Gonzalez added. �But even if we do record back there, there�s no doubt that this music begins out there in the desert.�