Reverend Horton Heat On New Album ‘Roots Of The Rev’ And DIY Touring

While their music conjures up the sights and sounds of a bygone era, rockabilly cats the Reverend Horton Heat rarely look back, plowing ahead with reckless abandon over 12 studio albums.

Nearly 40 years in, firsts are hard to come by. But the release of their latest studio album, and first since 2018, hits that mark. Roots of The Rev. (Vol. 1), now available on vinyl and for online streaming via Fun-Guy Records, retraces the group’s rockabilly, rock and country steps, taking listeners on a wild, lo-fi ride over the course of a dozen tracks on the group’s only record made up entirely of covers.

The key for the Rev on Roots was in putting a unique spin on sometimes familiar cuts.

“Some of them, we almost didn’t – and we just kind of paid homage to the artists themselves. Every one of them, we had a little different approach,” said founding singer, songwriter and guitarist Jim Heath during a phone conversation last week. “A lot of what we did was we kind of changed the tempos a little bit. For instance, Johnny Cash’s original version of ‘Big River’ is a pretty fast song. I thought that it would sound more big and ‘manly’ if we did it a little bit slower – more deliberate, you know? So adjusting the tempos. And coming up with my own solos for some of them. That kind of thing,” he said.

“‘Three Days.’ We changed that one up quite a bit,” said Heath, citing his take on Willie Nelson. “His is a slow country shuffle. And I decided it would work pretty good as kind of a rockabilly Rumba – a Rumba beat but a little rockabilly. And it did,” he said with a chuckle. “Willie’s songwriting is so great that you can really adapt it well to all different sorts of styles of music. So we made that one a rockabilly Rumba and then kind of added the solo – which I kind of lifted from a song called ‘Mona Lisa’ by Carl Mann. So we kind of fused two different styles.”

The new project hits on more familiar fare like Elvis Presley (“Ready Teddy”), Carl Perkins (“Right String, Wrong Yo-Yo”) and Eddie Cochran (“Twenty Flight Rock”), while exposing fans to the music of rockabilly legends Gene Summers (“School of Rock and Roll”), Sonny Fisher (“Little Red Wagon”) and Johnny Carroll (“Crazy Crazy Lovin’”).

Storytelling has always been a hallmark for Heath, lying at the heart of the Reverend Horton Heat’s songwriting for decades, and it’s front and center on the Roots of The Rev tracks covered too. But, on this latest project, Heath takes it a step further, again penning extensive liner notes that break down each album track.

In the process, he tells not just the story of the band’s earliest days, via anecdotes like those on his first band Teddy and The Talltops, but takes fans on a musical history tour too, cracking wise during stories about meeting Perkins, golfing with Nelson and opening for Cash.

Recording for the new project was brisk. Split between Dallas and Memphis, Heath recorded at his own Fun-Guy Studio and at songwriter Dale Watson’s Wat-Sun Recording Studio, knocking out four songs in two days with Watson during the Memphis session alone.

Recording to tape as much as possible, Heath and company utilized vintage equipment in order to capture a classic sound throughout a decidedly lo-fi affair.

“The main approach was very limited microphones. That’s almost more important than any kind of digital or analog format,” Heath explained of recording Roots of The Rev. “A lot of those songs were recorded with my vocal mic also picking up my guitar amp for instance. And then Jimbo’s vocal mic picking up his bass. For the guitar, vocals and bass, it’s all just two mics,” he said, noting the work of longtime bassist Jimbo Wallace.

“It was us all in the room together – the vocal mic picking up drums, the drums picking up the slapback of the vocal mic. And the lead vocal has a slapback echo,” Heath explained. “You hear that a lot on the old recordings – where the slapback is a set speed because they were just using an Ampex tape machine. So the slapback effect isn’t really always necessarily right in time with the drums,” he said. “Stuff like that would drive modern day recording engineers completely nuts. They would not do it. So us doing stuff like that, it lends itself to getting that sound.”

Supporting the new album, the Reverend Horton Heat are set to return to the road Saturday, April 1, 2023 at Houston’s Continental Club, kicking off a lengthy run which makes its way across the country throughout spring and summer, stopping at Milwaukee’s Summerfest on June 22 before wrapping up at the Coda Concert House in Joplin, Missouri on July 30.

Over the last 38 years, three Reverend Horton Heat albums have cracked the Billboard 200 albums chart, with videos for tracks like “One Time For Me” making it into rotation on MTV in the 90s (“Wiggle Stick” even made it onto an episode of Beavis and Butthead). As that level of commercial success can prove fleeting at any moment, the group has always staked its reputation live, road warriors annually performing between 150 and 200 shows, maintaining a devoted following.

With the deck stacked decidedly against independent touring artists amidst pandemic and inflation, Heath has been forced to break from his touring routine.

“The biggest adjustment for us has been after Covid,” he said. “After Covid, we no longer go out on a tour bus. That just got extremely expensive – especially with the diesel fuel prices through the roof. So we just backed it down,” said Heath. “Without the bus and the big trailer, we don’t have as much equipment as we used to carry. So, we’re bare bones equipment – which, I’m fine with,” he continued. “One good thing about it is just getting to see America. The bus was super convenient. But he would drive at night. So we would sleep in the bunks on the bus. And that was not great waking up the next day. ‘Hey, alright, we’re in Chicago…’ But now we’re in the van. We’re routing shorter but getting to see America like we used to in the early 90s – which is pretty cool. And sleeping in a hotel is nice.”

Heath has continually taken a more proactive approach to running his own label. And while he’s always been involved in the business side, he acknowledges a close eye on it has become more important than ever.

On the road, Heath’s former guitar tech Jonathan Jeter, and current drummer, wears many hats.

“After Covid, my tour manager, stage tech, merch salesman, driver and drummer all became the same guy. It’s all the same guy now! We’ve done several tours where it’s just been the three of us. So we’re all pitching in to do everything: tour manage, sell merch, drive, whatever,” said Heath.

“Frankly, the record labels didn’t do a lot for anything except for just selling records. The business has always been me,” he said. “We’ve got a manager/agent – but he’s basically an agent that advises me. He helps us get record deals. He helps us negotiate sync licenses and publishing things. But, at the end of the day, it’s really me that has to account for everything: book keep, make sure everything is paid for, paying all of the bills. And that’s really been a good thing,” said Heath. “I think bands that don’t do that are really flirting with disaster. A lot of the horror stories of bands losing money is because they left the bill paying and bank accounts to their management.”

Focused on pushing Roots of the Rev, Heath maintains a rosy outlook despite the times.

“It’s been really fun. Fun-Guy Records was never meant to be anything more than a vanity label. And then Jimmy Dale Richardson said, ‘Hey! I want you to put this recording out…’” Heah recalled. “He talked me into it. I wasn’t going to do it. I said, ‘Well, I’m not really a record label. I’m just a vanity label,’” he said. “The funny thing was, I put it out and I got a radio person kind of just as a lark. Because it was such an old sounding, lo-fi recording, I figured it would never get airplay. But the damn thing went to #5 on the alternative country charts. I was thinking, ‘Well, all of the sudden my vanity label is less vain. It’s getting to be a real label!’” said Heath laughing. “And I’m doing it right now. I’ve got some radio working Roots of the Rev. And it’s pretty cool,” he said.

“I have this thing that, a lot of stuff that happens to me ends up being for a good reason. I had the idea to be more of a control freak when I was younger. And I still have a bit of that control freak in me I think. But, at some point, you’ve kind of got to let things just happen – instead of force things. I guess I’m mellowing a little with my older age.”