Dave Clucas, Lead vox, rhythm and lead guitar/Davey Meshell, Bass guitar and BGVs/Blake Oswald, Drums/JD Bogan, Lead guitar
Influences
The Band, Muddy Waters, Richard Manuel, T.Rex, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, John Lee Hooker, Duck Dunn, Steve Cropper, Lyle Lovett, Jackie Wilson, Sam Cooke, Sam and Dave, Booker T. and the MGs, Johnny, Willie, Ram Jam, Cactus, Suzi Quatro, Sweet, Mud, The Neighboorhood Bullys, the Byrds, U2, The Blues Brothers Band, Paul Revere & the Raiders, The Chambers Brothers, Otis Redding, Allen Toussaint, Aretha Franklin, Jackie Wilson, Jesse Dayton, Alejandro Escovedo, LOVE, the VU, John Lee Hooker, Bob Wills, Marty Robbins, Loretta Lynn, Townes Van Zandt, Sam and Dave, Whiskeytown and all its spinoffs, the Stones, the Jayhawks, Victoria Williams, The Creekdippers, Lucinda Williams, the Old 97s, the Replacements, Willie, The Band, Johnny, the Carter Family, Wilco, Son Volt, Uncle Tupelo, John Denver, Michael Penn, Matthew Sweet, Soundgarden, Lone Justice, Junior Wells, the Black Crowes, the Caroline Movement, the Lemonheads, Sabbath, Jim Croce, Zep, Elvis Costello, The Band, the Neighborhood Bullys, the Beach Boys, Stevie Wonder, the Cure, Tom T. Hall, Prince, Husker Du, Gene Edwards, Emmylou Harris, X, the Jam, GP, the Buzzcocks, Jimmy Cliff, Pete Droge, Peter Case, the Plimsoles, Miles Davis, Phaeroh Sanders, Albert Ayler, Don Cherry, John Coltrane, the Cult, CCR, Jeff Buckley, Nick Drake, Steve Earle, the Everly Brothers, GnR, Pete Ham, Van Dyke Parks, Badfinger, Neil Diamond, Moby Grape, Grateful Dead, Dave Alvin, T.Rex, Woody Guthrie, Otis Redding, Richard Buckner, Carole King, Golden Smog, Big Star, the Stooges, Michael Jackson, Lisa Loeb, the Black Keys, Joni Mitchell, Metallica, Mudhoney, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, John Steinbeck, Cormac McCarthy, Willa Cather, Bob Dylan, Steve Martin, DAN CLUCAS, The Band, THE BAND...
"This history is designed now and ever to keep the sneers from the lips of sour scholars."—John Steinbeck, Tortilla Flat
After the breakup of seminal Orange County country-rockers Shuffledown in 1998, lead guitarist Dave Clucas hit the road for Denver and spent the following three months in a basement, writing songs and occasionally emerging to lounge about in Golden, Boulder, and Idaho Springs. He returned with a sheaf of songs and a new name for a new group--The Horsepainters.
Approaching the microphone with a Buddy Holly meets Richard Manuel and Rick Danko mentality, Clucas croons, lullabies, and belts his lyrics with a conviction rarely seen in todays bars, clubs, studios, and living rooms. Along with lead guitarist JD Bogan, drummer Blake Oswald, and bassist Davey Meshell, Clucas leads followers of his band down a dirty alleyway of injured love, healed love, solo drives, broken bottles, broken spirits, flowers, gravel, piss, mohair suits, sunshine, and hope. A native of Upland, Southern California, he spent every day with the desert, the mountains, Los Angeles, and the ocean within arm's reach. Every one of those places shot a different kind of music into his soul.
The standard influences are there, of course, but not exploited. The Band, the Stones, The Byrds, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, and friends all find their places in the songwriting, comfortably dancing next to the likes of Junior Wells, Allen Toussaint, Sam and Dave, Jim Croce, Otis Redding, Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and the Jayhawks, by way of Townes Van Zandt, John Denver, Otis Redding, Muddy Waters, and Mac Rebennack. Its just plain good music that was forged in the fires of a million little grooves on a thousand different records, all cooked over a pit on a dry lakebed outside of Calico Ghost Town. Or was it the ruined remains of a factory in Detroit?
Hey Horsepainters! Greetings from your neighbors right here in Austin, TX! Come out this Thursday to the continental for our happy hour show!Thanks for cruising by, we hope to see you at a show soon and we'll knock one back together! xoxox, Your friends, The Mother Truckers
Sorry to see you go, but I'm glad I was there to see you off. Truth be told, I think you're damn lucky to be going to Austin. Say hi to Randy and everyone, and I'll see you in March.
"look, don't make me participate in your stupid crap if you don't like the way i do it! you make me get out of bed. you make me come over. you make me make a phony phone call to edward rooney? the man could squash my nuts into oblivion. and, and, and then, and then, you deliberately hurt my feelings."
