West Texas Exiles and J Isaiah Evans & the Boss Tweed

West Texas Exiles

Featuring five musicians who grew up in El Paso, Lubbock and Amarillo, the West Texas Exiles draw upon the wide-open western reaches of the Lone Star State with a wide-ranging, Americana-centered sound. Rising from the embers of the Dirty River Boys, which Marco Gutierrez co-founded in 2009, the Austin band features a triple-threat of songwriters in Gutierrez, Daniel Davis and Colin Gilmore (son of legendary Texas troubadour Jimmie Dale Gilmore), plus seasoned bassist Eric Harrison and latter-day Dirty River Boys drummer Trinidad Leal. The Exiles' 2023 debut EP paved the way for their first full-length album, 8000 Days, due out later this year. The recordings build upon the live chops the group has honed through a weekly residency at Austin’s legendary Continental Club plus gigs at key local events such as SXSW and Willie Nelson’s Luck Reunion, as well as high-profile touring appearances at Nashville’s Americanafest, Braun Brothers Reunion and San Francisco’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival.

Fueled by American rock & roll and Texan country-boogie, J. Isaiah Evans & The Boss Tweed play revved-up roots music for garages, roadhouses, and juke joints. It's an old-school sound for the modern age, performed by an organ trio with overdriven amps and plenty of reverence for the trailblazers who came before them. Inspired by acts like Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, and Ike Turner, Evans teamed up with keyboardist Matthew Vasquez and drummer Spud Crowley to form The Boss Tweed after fronting another critically-acclaimed act, The 40 Acre Mule, for nearly a decade. The band's debut album, Americana Radio, finds the guys reimagining the organ trio — an ensemble traditionally seen in jazz music — as a vehicle for lean, mean rock & roll, delivering tracks like "Let's Rock" and "A Thing For You" with a mix of groove, grit, and Hammond B-3. Recorded to analog tape during two days of live-in-the-studio sessions, Americana Radio introduces a power trio rooted in the 21st century and inspired by the best parts of the past, breathing new life into familiar sounds along the way.