Local favorites The Moetones will be playing the Enterprise Bar and Grill in Rico on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17.
The show is at 9 p.m. There is no cover, and there will be drink specials.
Formed in 2009, the Moetones are made up of Moe Cooley (guitar, vocals), Tomoe Gozen (bass, vocals), Dale X. Allen (guitar) and Peter Ortego on drums.
The band has two albums out: “Low Brow,” released in 2011, and “Heartbreakers Ball,” released in 2014.
Cooley is a lifelong guitar player and songwriter with country roots in the Austin music scene.
“We’ve created our own genre and our songs are inspired by what we would like written on our tombstones,” he says.
Gozen grew up in Japan and learned classical piano for 15 years. Drawing on her musical background, she gave the bass a whirl and it stuck.
“I realized the bass is the instrument I’ve wanted to play all my life,” she said. “I’m a bass-line girl, and tune into it whenever I listen to music. I sing the bass line too.”
Allen, the Moetones’ newest member, hails from Austin as well. His other band, Genuine Cowhide, is well known in Texas Hill country for its hard-rocking, retro-Americana style.
Locals may remember Allen from when he played with Dave Insley and the Careless Smokers. He helped produce music for another local Dolores band, The Beautiful Losers, with front man Chuck Berry.
One of The Losers’ songs Allen helped produce was minor country hit in Europe.
“We used to play the old Hollywood before it burned,” Allen recalls fondly. “I’m glad to escape Texas and connect with the local music scene here.”
On April 7 at the Dolores River Brewery, The Go Rounds will play a concert.
The Michigan band are described as rock-and-roll confetti, mixing psychedelic, Indie country, and American Pop.
The band has released several albums and played music festivals in the Great Lakes area.
Some of the major acts The Go Rounds have supported include Greensky Bluegrass, Vulpeck, Keller Williams, Bruce Hornsby, Railroad Earth, and Arlo Guthrie.
Their last full-length album, Don’t Go Not Changin’, made several year-end best album lists and earned the three WYCE Jammy awards.
According to their website, The Go Round songs are “catchy, twangy, and trippy — led by the creative force of frontman Graham Parsons, whose spell binding vocals weave through lush sonic textures as the band puts on a master class of intricate arrangements.”
Their powerful and dynamic live show has earned them a reputation as one of the best live bands in the Midwest.
jmimiaga@the-journal.com
