Tuesday, March 12, 8:30 p.m.
Triple Crown Whiskey Bar & Raccoon Motel, 304 East Third Street, Davenport IA
A six-piece ensemble from Austin, Texas whose 2015 release Mockingbird was cited by Rolling Stone as one of the year's best country albums, the honkytonk talents of Mike & the Moonpies play a March 12 concert as Moeller Nights headliners treating audiences to a sound that NoDepression.com praised for its “shining tautness” and “crisp precision that is marvellous.”
Founded by singer/songwriter and frontman Mike Harmeier, Mike & the Moonpies has been a regional force in country music for the past 10 years, its current lineup boasting John Carbone on keyboards, Zach Moulton on steel guitar, Kyle Ponder on drums, Preston Rhone on bass, and Caitlin Rutherford on guitar. The band's 2010 album debut The Real Country led to an invitation by Daytrotter founder Sean Moeller to take part in the concert event Barnstormer IV, and in the years since, Mike & the Moonpies have maintained a busy touring schedule opening for the likes of Jason Boland & the Stragglers, Turnpike Troubadours, and Johnny Lee while earning critics' attention for albums including 2012's The Hard Way, 2015's Mockingbird, and last year's acclaimed Steak Night at the Prairie Rose.
As Rolling Stone wrote in its Mockingbird rave: “Mike Harmeier, the singer/songwriter-producer who fronts this hat-clad, Austin-based sextet, spent his youth soaking up the classic country, Western swing, and Southern rock pouring out of the jukebox of his grandfather's favorite honkytonk. He and his bandmates serve it back up on their third album, toasting influences that range from the Allman Brothers to George Strait … . Harmeier writes with a storytelling skill and specificity his heroes would appreciate – and the musicians play with the fire of the hard-touring band that they are.” Steak Night, meanwhile, earned even more lavish kudos, with the music magazine calling the 2018 recording “one of the best country albums of the year. With its easygoing barroom sound and crisp songwriting, the record transcends the 'Texas country' tag to make Mike Harmeier’s band a necessary part of the national country-music conversation.”
Mike & the Moonpies play Davenport's Triple Crown Whiskey Bar & Raccoon Motel at 8:30 p.m. on March 12, admission is $12, and the concert will be preceded by a 6 p.m. solo set with New York-based pop musician Mike “Gibbz” Gibney (tickets $10). For more information on the night, visit MoellerNights.com.
