The Moonhangers

You couldn’t catch a Chili Cold Blood show these days if you turned on the lights of every moontower in town, but Doug Strahan and Ethan Shaw still kick up country dirt at the Mean-Eyed Cat nearly every Friday as the Moonhangers. The cosmic cowboys’ third LP arrives straight from the Old West, tales of “Doin Time” with “heartaches put to rhythm” and not trustin’ nobody when you’re in Mississippi dotting a red-hot Texas landscape. The Moonhangers mosey “Chicken Funk” more country-fried than “Country Thighs,” with the J.J. Cale-style Tulsa two-step of “You’re in Love” booming Shaw through the mic like he’s a strummin’ Paul Bunyan. Waylon to Strahan’s Willie, the latter breaks hearts on “Devil Off My Feet” and “Let’s Do It Wrong,” two that’ll have folks swaying slowly on their porch swings. They surely don’t make ’em like this anymore.

***.5

This article appears in December 23 • 2011.

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