From cowboys to girls with the Hacienda Brothers

Hacienda Brothers’ singer/guitarist/accordionist Chris Gaffney lived up on Wardlow when he was a kid, and when he was a bored kid he’d get away from Wardlow whichever way he could—catching beachcombers drinking hobo wine on Tin Can Beach, weekend trips with dad to see Wynn Stuart at Tumbleweeds’ in Bell Gardens, hopping the train to Hawaiian Gardens, then blowing through Stanton (“ . . . and fucking that up!”) and hitchhiking to Anaheim’s Doll Hut to throw rocks at the pickling daytime drinkers. And where are those Gaffney-pelted daytime drinkers now? “Well,” says Gaffney, “being as I’m almost 57, they’re probably dead.”

Chris Gaffney isn’t quite the leader of the Hacienda Brothers—as he puts it, he’s the “oldest and meanest.” (And when will that honor pass to another? “Guess I’ll just have to die!” he says.) But he’s matched grit for grit by Dave Gonzalez, the Hacienda Brothers’ guitarist (and noted roots-rock personality all his own) who wrecked his wrist in a motorcycle accident just before what would have been the Hacienda Brothers’ appearance at the Ink and Iron festival on the Queen Mary. Encouraging MySpace update aside, the titanium pins in Gonzalez’s wrist aren’t the mood-elevators you’d think—“Hurtin’ like a bitch,” says Gaffney. “And he’s allergic to painkillers—he just doesn’t like them. He’s grinning and bearing it. And he hasn’t missed a note.”

So it’s been almost a year since the Hacienda Brothers have rattled back into Long Beach—probably to support their What’s Wrong with Right, the 2006 album lit up by their signature cover of the Intruders’ “Cowboys to Girls,” the first song Gaffney thinks of when he thinks of songs he’ll be playing forever. To him, the idea of “western soul”—which is the Hacienda Brothers’ accepted specialty—is more a product of technique, of a top-flight country/roots band adopting Gamble and Huff songs into its set and transposing the brass parts to pedal steel. But “Cowboys” or “Cry Like a Baby” (the Box Tops’ hit written by Hacienda big brother Dan Penn) sound like they were always supposed to have that Buck Owens guitar tone, and Gaffney’s voice in song finds the same measured range it does in conversation, where it zips from respectful memories of Mike Ness “going apeshit” with a guitar to sweet surprise at the homemade cookies waiting for the Hacienda Brothers in their Midwestern dressing room tonight.

Imminently out—within minutes, possibly—is the new Hacienda live CD Music For Ranch And Town, recorded in Oslo, Norway, and selected for release, says Gaffney, simply because Oslo, Norway, had such a good sound system. It’s the natural complement to What’s Wrong, with album stalwarts like “Mental Revenge” and “Walkin’ On My Dreams” alongside uncut covers of Johnnies Cash and Paycheck, left off earlier studio selections because, says Gaffney, it might have been a little presumptuous to do a second album of all cover songs. But live set is Hacienda repertoire unrestrained—the band at their go-for-broke best. Though known for being an autobiographical songwriter, Gaffney won’t say who if anyone local makes an appearance in the songs—“Though I did get a message on my answering machine that said, ‘Watch out!’” he says. “I always love that.”

Though known for being an autobiographical songwriter, Gaffney won’t say who if anyone local makes an appearance in the songs—“Though I did get a message on my answering machine that said, ‘Watch out!’” he says. “I always love that.”

THE HACIENDA BROTHERS WITH KID RAMOS AND LOS FABULOCOS AND LITTLE BARRY G AND VOODOO BLUES THE BLUE CAFÉ | 210 PROMENADE | LONG BEACH 90802 | FRI 9PM | $13 | 21+ | THEBLUECAFE.COM

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