Album Notes

The Mother Truckers are a hard rockin’ country band out of Austin, TX via Marin County, CA and their album Broke, Not Broken, will be re-released on November 6, 2007 through Funzalo Records.

Husband and wife Josh Zee and Teal Collins make up the singing and songwriting nucleus of the band, and their chemistry plays out in their seamless harmonies, enviable voices, irreverent lyrics, masterful musicianship and energetic onstage partnership.

Both longtime musicians from the Bay Area, Josh and Teal met at a blues jam in San Rafael. Teal, who’s racked up Gold and Platinum records for singing on Third Eye Blind and Shanice records, is a charismatic, powerful singer who cites Led Zeppelin one of the bands to have influenced her most; guitar ace Josh wears his heart on his sleeve for AC/DC, and recorded two albums with his mid-90s post-grunge metal band, Protein. They formed The Mother Truckers, got married a couple years after that, and kicked around San Francisco and environs for about 4 years total before deciding to pack it up and head to Austin in 2005.

There they met Ray Benson (Asleep At The Wheel) who was so impressed with TMT that he worked with them recording Broke, Not Broken. According to Benson, “Teal and Josh are not only GREAT singers but also write some of the cleverest and most original songs around. I’ve played their music for musician friends of mine here in Texas, including Willie Nelson, and they all agree: The Mother Truckers are a great, original and fun band.”

Teal and Josh got to Austin and were able to enlist crack sidemen Leslie McCurdy on bass, Pete “The Beat” Langhans on drums, and Kim Deschamps on pedal steel and dobro. Almost immediately, the band gained a coveted local following, even landing a berth playing at Willie Nelson’s annual Fourth of July Picnic. They started to pack in enthusiastic Austinites at the Continental Club as the regular Thursday night happy hour band, and raked in press and accolades from in-the-know music critics as well as airplay on taste-making Austin radio station KGSR.