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Important moments in the evolution of surf music
By CHRIS HANSEN ORF
GET OUT
It isn't exactly a line one would think would spawn a marriage and ultimately one of the best bands the Valley has seen in recent years, but it worked on Shannon Marino.
The bassist had just joined a swing/rockabilly band called Exit 56 and was waiting on the porch of the practice pad with his new band mates when a girl with a fiddle case approached the group.
“What's up, losers?” she said.
“I turned to the guy next to me and said, ‘I'm gonna marry that girl,’” Marino says, laughing. “And I did.”
Heather Rae Johnson was a violin prodigy from Portland, Ore., who drifted down to study the instrument at the University of Arizona in Tucson before moving to Tempe.
Marino had done time with Tucson's Al Foul and the Shakes and Valley rockabilly favorites Flathead, as well as a lot of time on the road playing solo shows on acoustic guitar, living in his car, after high school.
After meeting, the two discovered a common bond: They were both raised on country music and found an outlet in punk rock in their youth before coming back to country.
SOUND OF THE ’50S
“I still don't really like country music,” Johnson chuckles over a beer at Casey Moore's. “Hank Williams is OK, Johnny Cash is OK, Waylon (Jennings) and Willie (Nelson),” says Johnson. “Other than that, I hate it.”
“She's always hated country — I was the one who had to turn her on to it,” laughs the good-natured Marino. “But she can write it and sing it better than anybody I know.”
As their new album — released Tuesday — illustrates, Heather Rae and her Moonshine Boys have a knack for writing music that sounds like it could have been recorded in the 1950s, an intoxicating brew of honky-tonk, bluegrass, torch and rock ’n' roll with a modern twist and Heather Rae's terrific Patsy Cline-meets-Wanda Jackson pipes.
For all her vocal talent, Johnson didn't plan to sing lead until a jam session broke out in a Yuma hotel room with Shannon and Exit 56's guitarist.
“That's when Heather Rae and her Moonshine Boys started, right there,” Marino says. “I knew we had something.”
SIX-STRING SHUFFLE
Since then, the band has seen a revolving door of guitarists — legendary local six-string gunslinger Kevin Daly of Grave Danger plays on the album — but the band has found two unlikely guitarists to round out the quartet. Bones Mathiasch and Jon Wolf come from disparate backgrounds that couldn't be farther away from those of Marino and Heather Rae.
“Actually, I started out in heavy metal,” Wolf says. “Then I studied jazz at ASU, and when I went to work at (musical equipment maker) Genz Benz, I found Shannon.
“I was always around country, but I'd never played it until this group — it's more than just playing notes, it's an articulation of country music.”
Like Wolf, Bones got his start in heavy metal and worked at Genz Benz, where Marino recruited him to join the band as well.
“Shannon convinced me to come out and jam with the band, and I'd never played country before in my life,” Bones says. “But from the first jam we had I was so excited; it was so (expletive) good, man.”
HELLO, AUSTIN With the new members on board, the band has played to packed crowds, and the terrific response to their live shows has encouraged the band to take the next step.
Unfortunately for Valley fans, that step means moving to alt-country mecca Austin, Texas. Heather Rae and Marino left in late July, and Wolf and Bones plan to follow suit.
“We're going out there and see what happens,” Marino says.
“We're going to try to make a living in music, and Austin seems like the best place for us. I hate L.A., Nashville is wrong for us, so that left Aust
Heather Rae and her Moonshine Boys
With: Wayne Hancock, Flathead
When: 8 p.m. Tuesday
Where: The Rhythm Room
1019 E. Indian School Road, Phoenix
Cost: $12
Information: or
www.rhythmroom.com
With: HotRod HillBillys
When: 10 p.m. Aug. 19
Where: Yucca Tap Room
29 W. Southern Ave., Tempe
Cost: Free
Information: or
www.yuccatap.com
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