The Texas Headhunters are the perfect storm of blues-driven guitar rock. The Austin-born and bred band consists of veteran guitar heroes Ian Moore, Johnny Moeller and Jesse Dayton — veteran guitar heroes who were mentored by iconic club owner Clifford Antone. This shared musical mentorship, the thousands of miles traversed over the sonic highways of America, and their decades of friendship has allowed for the trio to seamlessly created this new, thunderously, definitively Texas blues band.
Recently, we caught up with Ian Moore to talk about the band’s formation, blending three distinctly different guitar styles into one band, their new album, touring with Samantha Fish and more.
Let’s start with the most obvious question — you three are renowned guitar players in your own right (whether solo or in other bands). Can you talk about the decision to come together to form this band?
We’ve been friends for decades now. I’ve know Johnny and Jesse since we were kids. We’ve all done a lot of things in our own careers and we had been talking about doing something for a couple of years. We started doing it and things just fell into place naturally.
Listening to your first two songs “Maggie Went Back to Mineola” and “Kathleen” — it sounds like you all have been performing together for decades. These are such tightly produced songs. Do you attribute this out of the box excellence to your storied careers as artists, or was this magic found within the studio and your producing team?
One of the coolest things is that we did the record ourselves. We had a great engineer in Steve Chadie, who does all of Willie Nelson’s stuff, and we considered having someone produce, but we all love each other’s music and playing, so we just let it happen. We worked quickly and just had fun doing it.
Since all three of you are guitarists, can you talk about how you blend your differing styles of guitar playing?
I think, in this realm, that is kind of our angle. We are three different types of players, though we share a lot of influence. We listened to a lot of the same records growing up, but we each found different angles. I think when you listen to the record you can hear three different personalities. That said, I can tell that all three of us grew up musically in Austin. There is just a way of playing here, and I hear that in all three of us.
Your new album drops in about two months’ time. Can you discuss the lyrical and sonic themes of the album?
Sonically, we wanted to pay homage to the past and where we come from, but we didn’t want to make a record that was a “vintage record.” I hear lots of cultural flashpoints in it, but it sounds like a record made in 2025! Lyrically, the songs have a lot of winks and nods. There are some serious moments, but a lot of levity as well.
In your bio, the venue Antone’s in Austin, TX is mentioned quite frequently. For those who are unfamiliar with the venue — how important is this venue to the blues scene, and how was it important to The Texas Headhunters.
It is huge for the three of us. We have all played the stages countless times. I was at the grand opening, and literally learned to play guitar as a teenager going there. Johnny seemed to live at Antone’s for big stretches of his life. Jesse is a Beaumont boy, like Clifford Antone, and Clifford was a huge mentor for him (as for all of us).
You’re hitting the Northeast this week for a run of shows with Samantha Fish. Can you talk about what Northeast fans can expect from a Texas Headhunters live performance?
This is kind of the debut for us as a band. We are gonna be finding that out to some degree at the same time you guys will. We are Texas players, and especially now, with so many of the big guitar names being southeastern (Marcus King, Derek Trucks) its fun to come out with the angle and attitude that comes naturally from the three of us. We have fun, but we are gonna show up with all the fire we got.
Talk about Samantha Fish, who’ll you be heading out on the road with. What’s your thoughts of her as an artist?Â
Jesse Dayton toured with Samantha quite a bit and was constantly talking about what a force she is. I’ve seen the same thing. She is an amazing singer and player. She has a unique voice and style and puts on a powerful show.
What do you love about being in The Texas Headhunters?
The whole idea behind this was to get together with friends and do something together. I have been fronting my own band for 30 something years. Its cool to be able to support Johnny and Jesse and then step up and do my thing. To me, I get to learn alongside two of the best in the business!
What are five things you are most excited for for The Texas Headhunters in 2025?
Well, we are just getting started, but I am excited for a lot of things-
- To see what we can get going musically.
- To play a bunch of towns I haven’t been to for a while.
- To play Clifford Antone’s birthday at Antone’s this fall.
- To jump into the blues rock ring that was a huge part of my early career.
- To spread our music and vibe all across the country and the world.
