Johnny Moeller
Encyclopedia
Johnny Moeller is an American
blues
guitarist
currently with The Fabulous Thunderbirds
.
He had early exposure to music
in the home as his father played a little boogie-woogie
piano and was constantly listening to music. He started playing guitar in his early teen years and soon discovered Slim Harpo
and Jimmy Reed
in his father's record
collection. Additionally, Moeller remembers hearings lots of both ZZ Top
and The Fabulous Thunderbirds. Over the years Moeller's main influences have been from Freddie King
, Lightnin' Hopkins
, Earl King
and Grant Green
. Lesser, but meaningful influences come from a wide variety of other blues, soul
and funk
artists
.
He began playing in Dallas
and Fort Worth blues
clubs
whilst still in high school
. During the summers Moeller and his year and a half younger brother
Jay Moeller, who was already playing drum
s (and is now the drummer
with The Fabulous Thunderbirds), would travel from their home in Denton
down to Austin
to "hang out" with their father. The summer they were 16 and 15 their father convinced Clifford Antone
of the Austin blues club Antone's to let his sons periodically sit in with the evening's performers. The first night Moeller appeared on Antone's stage was with Little Charlie & The Nightcats
. It was an event that Moeller would never forget and from that night on Antone was one of Moeller's biggest supporters
.
After Moeller finished high school in Denton he moved to Austin and into the music scene that is 6th Street (Austin). He worked many of the city's well known venues and often soaked in the music of the constant stream of blues artists which Antone brought. Amongst those that played Antone's were Earl King
, Albert Collins
, and James Cotton
.
Years later the Austin Chronicle
quoted Antone (who also helped launch Stevie Ray Vaughan
) as saying: "Johnny, nobody can burn like that kid. He's got the heart like Stevie had, about the only one I've seen with that kind of heart. Johnny's so quiet and bashful, just a sweet kid and sometimes those kids get overlooked."
By the time Moeller had joined The Fabulous Thunderbirds in mid 2007 he had recorded
, played regularly with, or toured North America
, Europe
and Scandinavia
with Darrell Nulisch
, Lou Ann Barton
,
Mike Barfield, Doyle Bramhall II
, Gary Primich
, and Guy Forsyth.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
currently with The Fabulous Thunderbirds
The Fabulous Thunderbirds
The Fabulous Thunderbirds are an American, Grammy-nominated Blues rock band, formed in 1974.-Career:After performing for several years in the Austin, Texas blues scene, the band won a recording contract with Takoma/Chrysalis Records, and later on signed with Epic Records.Their first two albums,...
.
He had early exposure to music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
in the home as his father played a little boogie-woogie
Boogie-woogie
Boogie-woogie has the following meanings:*Boogie-woogie, a piano-based music style*Boogie-woogie , a swing dance or a dance that imitates the rock-n-roll dance of the 1950s*"Boogie Woogie" , a song by EuroGroove and Dannii Minogue...
piano and was constantly listening to music. He started playing guitar in his early teen years and soon discovered Slim Harpo
Slim Harpo
Slim Harpo was an American blues musician. He was known as a master of the blues harmonica; the name "Slim Harpo" was derived from "harp," the popular nickname for the harmonica in blues circles.-Early life:...
and Jimmy Reed
Jimmy Reed
Mathis James "Jimmy" Reed was an American blues musician and songwriter, notable for bringing his distinctive style of blues to mainstream audiences. Reed was a major player in the field of electric blues, as opposed to the more acoustic-based sound of many of his contemporaries...
in his father's record
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
collection. Additionally, Moeller remembers hearings lots of both ZZ Top
ZZ Top
ZZ Top is an American rock band, sometimes referred to as "That Little Ol' Band from Texas". Their style, which is rooted in blues-based boogie rock, has come to incorporate elements of arena, southern, and boogie rock. The band, from Houston Texas, formed in 1969...
and The Fabulous Thunderbirds. Over the years Moeller's main influences have been from Freddie King
Freddie King
Freddie King , thought to have been born as Frederick Christian, originally recording as Freddy King, and nicknamed "the Texas Cannonball", was an influential African-American blues guitarist and singer. He is often mentioned as one of "the Three Kings" of electric blues guitar, along with Albert...
, Lightnin' Hopkins
Lightnin' Hopkins
Sam John Hopkins better known as Lightnin’ Hopkins, was an American country blues singer, songwriter, guitarist and occasional pianist, from Houston, Texas...
, Earl King
Earl King
This article is about the musical artist. For the Earl King convicted of murdering a ship's officer, see Earl King, Ernest Ramsay, and Frank Conner...
and Grant Green
Grant Green
Grant Green was a jazz guitarist and composer....
. Lesser, but meaningful influences come from a wide variety of other blues, soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
and funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
artists
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
.
He began playing in Dallas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
and Fort Worth blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
clubs
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
whilst still in high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
. During the summers Moeller and his year and a half younger brother
Sibling
Siblings are people who share at least one parent. A male sibling is called a brother; and a female sibling is called a sister. In most societies throughout the world, siblings usually grow up together and spend a good deal of their childhood socializing with one another...
Jay Moeller, who was already playing drum
Drum
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...
s (and is now the drummer
Drummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...
with The Fabulous Thunderbirds), would travel from their home in Denton
Denton, Texas
The city of Denton is the county seat of Denton County, Texas in the United States. Its population was 119,454 according to the 2010 U.S. Census, making it the eleventh largest city in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex...
down to Austin
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
to "hang out" with their father. The summer they were 16 and 15 their father convinced Clifford Antone
Clifford Antone
Clifford Antone was the founder of a well-known Austin blues club, record label, and a mentor to Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimmie Vaughan and numerous other musicians....
of the Austin blues club Antone's to let his sons periodically sit in with the evening's performers. The first night Moeller appeared on Antone's stage was with Little Charlie & The Nightcats
Little Charlie & the Nightcats
Little Charlie & the Nightcats is an American four-piece electric blues / jazz combo, consisting currently of guitarist Kid Andersen, harmonicist/lead vocalist Rick Estrin, bassist Lorenzo Farrell and drummer J...
. It was an event that Moeller would never forget and from that night on Antone was one of Moeller's biggest supporters
Fan (person)
A Fan, sometimes also called aficionado or supporter, is a person with a liking and enthusiasm for something, such as a band or a sports team. Fans of a particular thing or person constitute its fanbase or fandom...
.
After Moeller finished high school in Denton he moved to Austin and into the music scene that is 6th Street (Austin). He worked many of the city's well known venues and often soaked in the music of the constant stream of blues artists which Antone brought. Amongst those that played Antone's were Earl King
Earl King
This article is about the musical artist. For the Earl King convicted of murdering a ship's officer, see Earl King, Ernest Ramsay, and Frank Conner...
, Albert Collins
Albert Collins
Albert Collins was an American electric blues guitarist and singer whose recording career began in the 1960s in Houston and whose fame eventually took him to stages across the US, Europe, Japan and Australia...
, and James Cotton
James Cotton
James Cotton is an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter, who has performed and recorded with many of the great blues artists of his time as well as with his own band.-Career:...
.
Years later the Austin Chronicle
Austin Chronicle
The Austin Chronicle is an alternative weekly, tabloid-style newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demographic...
quoted Antone (who also helped launch Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stephen Ray "Stevie Ray" Vaughan was an American electric blues guitarist and singer. He was the younger brother of Jimmie Vaughan and frontman for Double Trouble, a band that included bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton. Born in Dallas, Vaughan moved to Austin at the age of 17 and...
) as saying: "Johnny, nobody can burn like that kid. He's got the heart like Stevie had, about the only one I've seen with that kind of heart. Johnny's so quiet and bashful, just a sweet kid and sometimes those kids get overlooked."
By the time Moeller had joined The Fabulous Thunderbirds in mid 2007 he had recorded
Sound recording and reproduction
Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...
, played regularly with, or toured North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
with Darrell Nulisch
Darrell Nulisch
Darrell Nulisch is an American electric blues singer and harmonica player. Prior to his solo career, he was a member of Anson Funderburgh and the Rockets and The Broadcasters...
, Lou Ann Barton
Lou Ann Barton
Lou Ann Barton is an American blues singer based, out of Austin, Texas since the 1970s.-Biography:...
,
Mike Barfield, Doyle Bramhall II
Doyle Bramhall II
Doyle Bramhall II is a guitarist and vocalist in his band Smokestack and was also the second guitarist in Eric Clapton's band from 2004 to 2009.-Discography:with Arc Angels*Arc Angels...
, Gary Primich
Gary Primich
Gary Primich was an American blues harmonica player, singer, guitarist and songwriter. He is best known for his 1995 album, Mr. Freeze.-Biography:...
, and Guy Forsyth.
Discography
- The Moeller brothers, along with their childhood friend Paul Size, later of the Red Devils Blues Band, collaborated on a Dallas Blues Society Records release - Return of the Funky Worm (1996).
- Along with Paul Size, worked with Mick JaggerMick JaggerSir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and a founding member of The Rolling Stones....
on his still-unreleased album of traditional blues.
- Johnny's Blues Aggregation, Dallas Blues Society Records, (2001)
- Bloogaloo, Severn RecordsSevern RecordsSevern Records is an American independent record label that concentrates on blues music. Since its founding in 1998, Severn has issued more than 50 albums. Its motto is "Roots Music for the 21st Century".-History:...
. (2010)