Johnny Moeller
guitar
To call Johnny Moeller the latest in a long line of blazing Texas blues guitarists tells only part of the story. Even with the bona-fide blues juju Johnny casts over everything he plays, it's apparent that he listening to a much wider musical landscape, dragging all sorts of new ideas and influences into his blues. That's why even the most grizzled, thoroughly jaded blues hounds - people who've sacrificed much of their hearing digging hot licks for three or four decades - sit up and take notice when Johnny unleashes one of his blistering, elegantly filthy solos. There's something fresh going on here, some spontaneous new combination of sounds taking place as one listens.
None of this will come as a suprise to listeners discerning enough to have checked out Johnny's preforming/recording output since he first started jamming as a teenager at Dallas blues clubs in the late 80's. His blues pedigree includes axe work on Darrell Nulisch's Texas Heat CD on Black Top, and on all of Darrell's subsequent soul/ blues releases. Johnny also played on Austin harpist/ singer Lewis Cowdrey's "It's Lewis" for the Anton's label. On his 1996 DBS Records release, Return of the Funky Worm, Johnny (with brother Jason and long time partner Paul Size) mixed blues with greasy funk, sounding like some missing link between the Ohio Players, Grant Green and Johnny "Guitar" Watson. Currently, Moeller alternates with Derek O'Brien as lead guitarist in Lou Ann Barton's band, with time off to back swampmeister Lazy Lester and Beaumont soul legend Richard Earl at Europe's Blues Estefette Festival 2000.
What is the distinctive guitar tone Johnny's evolved over the years, tempering his tough, raucous Texas blues edge with a Gulf Coast swampiness. He dredges up a dark, corkscrew-spiraling wah-wah solo on "J's Scratcher" and his ferocious, spitting chords fuel the band's slow-grind take on Memphis Slim's "Mama, the Way You Look Tonight." Two instrumentals put Moellers' bursting-at-the seams riffs front and center, with "Bak 'n' Forf" recalling Guitar Gable's "Congo Mambo," while "Slingin' Hash" smokes right along like some mutant hybrid of Wes Montgomery and Hollywood Fats. Or check out the way Johnny's gleefully guttural guitar locks down on the shuffle rhythm of Jimmy Reed's "You Got Me Crying" like a pit bull with a postman's leg in his mouth.
Other highlights include Johnny's swamp-drenched, crying axework on "You Turn to Cry," A Roy Head tune brought to the sessions by guest vocalist (and one-man band) Homer Henderson. Homer also unearthed the obscure rockabilly gem "Oh Baby Oh," given a charging shuffle treatment here by the band, anchored throughout by Jason Moeller on drums. Keyboard virtuoso Matt Farrell (who currently plays with the Keller Bros. Band, along with bassist Mike Keller) contributes wailing vocals on most cuts from the Morris Pejoe rocker "Let's Get High" to Big Maceo Merriwether's (by way of Ray Charles) "Worried Life Blues." Jason takes the mike for his self-penned Slim Harpo / Frank Frost tribute, "J's Scratcher," and the Johnny "Guitar" Watson opus work is courtesy of Johnny Bradley, who, along with both Moeller brothers, forms the nucleus of Louann Barton's backup band these days.
Johnny's Blues Aggregation showcases a pack of seasoned Texas blues buddies bolstering Johnny Moeller's leap from sideman to spotlight. Cut live at Billy Horton's Fort Horton Studios in Austin, with everybody together in one room, this latest DBS Records release is the very antithesis of "studio-itis" - that mysterious process by which laboring overlong on recorded music sucks the sweat, grit and life right out of it. No, what we have is the latest living example of Texas blues reinventing itself yet again, and miraculously finding something fresh to say in the process - and Johnny's got the vocabulary of buzzing, stinging licks to put the message across loud and clear.
Albums:
- Johnny's Blues Aggregation [Dallas Blues
Society 8905, February 2001] with Homer Henderson, Michael
Keller, Shawn Pittman
Johnny Moeller & Paul Size:
- Return of the Funky Worm [Dallas Blues
Society 8903, October 1996] with Hash Brown, Mike Flanigin, Rhett
Frazier
He appears on the following albums:
Darrell Nulisch & Texas Heat - Business as Usual [Black Top 1070, 1991]
Lewis Cowdrey - It's Lewis [Antone's 29, April 1994]
Darrell Nulisch - Bluesoul [Higher Plane 511, September 1996]
Darrell Nulisch - Whole Truth [Severn 3, August 1998]
Darrell Nulisch - I Like It That Way [Severn 7, April 2000]
Wine, Wine, Wine - Everything's Gonna Be Alright [Entwine 1,
October 2000]
Shawn Pittman - Full Circle [Shawn Pittman Music 62451, 2001]
Mike Morgan & the Crawl - Texas Man [Severn 14, February 2002]
Gary Primich - Dog House Music [Antone's 57, April 2002]
Lou Pride - Words of Caution [Severn 17, May 2002]
Walter T. Higgs - Just a Few Miles to Go [Doc Blues 6802, June
2002]
Lee McBee - Soul Deep [Pacific Blues 2201, July 2002]
Albert
Cummings - From the Heart [Under The Radar 2709, January
2003]
Matthew Robinson - Matthew Robinson and the Texas Blues Band
[Dialtone 6, January 2003]
West Side Horns - San Quilmas [Dialtone 7, January 2003]
Darrell Nulisch - Times Like These [Severn 20, May 2003]
Candye
Kane - White Trash Girl [Ruf 1084, June 2005]
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