Shawn Pittman & Jay Moeller - Straight Blues From Crooked Fools (2020)

Shawn Pittman and Jay Moeller’s friendship stretches back more than two decades. While still in his teens, Pittman moved from Norman, Oklahoma to Texas, to immerse himself in the thriving blues scene in Dallas, where he would work with Sam Myers, Hash Brown, Mike Morgan, and others. Around 1995, Paul Size (The Red Devils) introduced him to Moeller, a native of the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Pittman recalls the first time he heard Jay, at Schooner’s, in Dallas: “Jay throws down a shuffle in a way that spoils you. I had never heard anyone play with that intensity and power. It dang near scared the heck out of me!” The two formed a band in which they played together briefly before Jay moved to Austin. Moeller recalls, “We hit it off well. We’ve spent some of the funniest, and worst, moments in life together. We’re brothers in that! Shawn’s great. He’s way more real and convincing than most folks.” Johnny, who also appears on Everybody Wants to Know, is the other Moeller brother. Pittman met him on the day he arrived in Austin. “I showed up on his doorstep about 7 a.m., and he was just as nice to me then as he is now. We have had some great adventures! I love Johnny’s guitar playing – his tone, timing, and chordal knowledge separate him from most players. He and Jay have been doing this, and doing it well, since they were kids.”

In the years following those early days, Jay has performed or recorded with seemingly every musician in Austin and many from elsewhere, including Lou Ann Barton, Lazy Lester, Charlie Crockett, and Gary Clark Jr., in addition to his work in The Moeller Brothers, and was a member of The Fabulous Thunderbirds for roughly a decade (approximately 2005-2015). Pittman, who has worked with Susan Tedeschi and Stevie Ray Vaughan’s rhythm section Double Trouble, has recorded 11 acclaimed solo albums, most recently Backslidin’ Again in 2015. Shawn and Jay have continued to play together off and on, in live performances and on recordings, most visibly on the Shawn Pittman – Moeller Brothers collaboration, Triple Troubles, released in 2010. In many respects, then, Everybody Wants to Know is the latest in a long and fruitful working relationship between two friends. ~Tom Hyslop