The South Austin Moonlighters & The West Texas Exiles
The South Austin Moonlighters are a roots & Americana band from Austin, Texas.
The band started in 2011 when Lonnie got together a group of local music veterans to occasionally play together for the sheer joy of making music. Pretty soon it became evident that something special happened when we played together, and the band—which was originally meant to be a moonlighting side-gig for all of us—became our main gig.
Those of you who know us know that our success has come from working as a team. We hold each other up and inspire each other to keep pushing and challenging ourselves to be our very best at all times. We all sing and write songs. We take turns leading the band, singing harmonies and coming together to lift each other up.
At the end of the day we all love making music, sharing it with people and basking in the joy that our audiences reflect back to us.
The Moonlighters deliver their own unique brand of Americana music with organic, show-stopping vocal harmonies, incredible musicianship, and well-crafted, heart-felt songs.
The joy of making music is a tangible and contagious part of the Moonlighters’ live shows. They are often compared to The Eagles, Little Feat, and Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young—but the Moonlighters have a voice all of their own.
They write and perform original music 2012’s Live at The Saxon Pub, 2013’s Burn and Shine, 2016’s Ghost of a Small Town and the highly anticipated, Anders Osborne-produced album Travel Light, which was released on May 17, 2019.
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There’s Texas, and then there’s West Texas. You can leave it behind, but you can’t let it go. Nobody knows that better than the West Texas Exiles. Love of music and a restlessness to escape their hometowns brought them together in Austin. With the release of their debut EP, Volume I, they showcased the talents of their three singer / songwriters: Marco Gutierrez, Daniel Davis, Colin Gilmore accompanied by masterful performances by bassist Eric Harrison and drummer Trinidad Leal. Fans showed their love at a sold out 2023 EP release at the legendary Saxon Pub in Austin.
With influences from The Flatlanders and Buddy Holly to Vampire Weekend and Jason Isbell they are reinvigorating the music scene with a modern interpretation of the lone star vernacular. Collaboration is one of their passions and strengths: recording songs with Bowling for Soup’s Jaret Ray Reddick and The Voice finalist NOIVAS, direct tour support for Dave Alvin and backing Jimmie Dale Gilmore in 2023.
The Exiles have exponentially grown from their inception a little over a year ago, playing SXSW as official artists and Willie Nelson’s Luck reunion and garnering local, national, and international radio play – including Sirius XM. Plaudits like the 2022 International Songwriting Competition (Americana category) spotlight their rhythmic and lyrically honest sound. The West Texas Exiles’ sound truly evokes the ghosts of southwest Americana. But this band of outsiders isn’t just waltzing across Texas, they’re searching for newer horizons "while I still got my boots on my feet."
