Album Review: Mike and The Moonpies "Mockingbird"

Austin’s Mike and The Moonpies recently released their third studio album, Mockingbird, and it is without a doubt, their best sounding album to date. The six piece, fronted by Mike Harmeier, also includes Kyle Ponder (percussion), Preston Rhone (Bass), Catlin Rutherford (guitar), Zachary Moulton (steel guitar) and John Carbone (piano, organ). The ten track collection of all original tunes was recorded at Cedar Creek Studio in Austin by John Silva (the Trishas) and finds Harmeier (who penned all ten) in a nostalgic state of mind, both lyrically and musically. The Moonpies’ sound is authentic, steeped in tradition (think Porter Wagoner), and heavy on customary instrumentation (as well as a welcome infusion of horns and strings) that is actually used in the forefront, not as filler.

Kicking off with their current single, “Smoke ‘Em If You Got ‘Em” which recounts the growth of the band, Mockingbird is brimming with well-crafted songs of life, love and sorrow. There’s heartache (and a pinch of Elvis) in the two-step of “Say It Simply” about a righteous man who can’t read the writing on the wall and on “South First Blvd” (hello saxophone!!) where he finds his gal cheating with another “With a shot of Patron and a raise of your glass you cut me down to size.”

“One Is The Whiskey,” a doleful drinking tale lamenting being abandoned by another, is highlighted by viola, violin and cello while the waltz of  “Never Leaving Texas” finds him professing his love for the Lone Star state…even if it means being without her. “I’m happy here in Houston with a bottle in hand.”

Mockingbird isn’t all heartache, however. The warm, shuffling cadence of the title track tells of the similarities of three generations of men. “My daddy was his father’s son loved drink bear and have fun/Passed it all down to me along with his old faded jeans.” While the rollicking “Delilah” is a keys filled tune about returning to the one you love, not wanting to have to leave again.

While there isn’t a “skipper” on the album, two tracks stand-out, “I Don’t Love You” and “Miserable Man.” The former is an achingly (to the point of being visceral) sad duet with Carson McHone about the dissolution of a relationship seen from both sides. “I thought the whole thing over when I was relatively sober…..I don’t love you is too hard to say and I don’t need you is a lie, I used to think about you every day and now you barely even cross my mind.” The latter, which closes the album, is the sorrowful (amplified by the trombone and French horn at its conclusion) tale of a couple who, for better or for worse, are “Both committed to the rings on their hands/this heartbroken women and this miserable man.”

Mockingbird may best be heard live in a honky-tonk or dance hall (think Broken Spoke or Gruene Hall), whiskey in hand and watching patrons two-step. If that can’t happen, turn it on, turn it up and let it transport you there, but whatever you do, don’t let Mockingbird fly off your radar. 

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