Crooks

Josh Mazour's having a Bloody Mary Sunday morning. The Crooks frontman is hungover from playing a private party the previous night, and now the bass player's gone missing. With long brown hair, big bushy beard, aviator glasses, and a wide-brimmed cowboy hat, Mazour looks like a Seventies country outlaw. That's appropriate since the local quartet traffics in a sound associated with Waylon Jennings and his ilk, a roots bramble not easily classified.

"We call it country because that's the category that was forced upon us by iTunes," explains multi-instrumentalist Sam Alberts.

"It's not rock," Mazour chimes in. "But I have no idea what to call our music anymore. I guess it depends on what song you listen to."

Although Crooks has been scuffling around Austin for three years now, The Rain Will Come, the group's debut LP, drops in May. Produced by Danny Reisch (White Denim, the Bright Light Social Hour, Shearwater), it's an amalgam steeped in the Southwest. Horn riffs evoke Calexico, shaggy honky-tonk, and a taste of San Antonio in a guest appearance by accordion legend Flaco Jimenez.

Growing up in the Hill Country town of Boerne, Mazour had a brother who listened to a lot of country music which he initially rejected.

"I listened to a lot of early Nineties rock, stuff that came out of Seattle," he says. "I was surrounded by country sounds but I resisted it. But when I started writing songs, I just naturally gravitated toward music that was more meaningful, I guess. There's an underlying rawness in some of the stuff we do. I like hearing it coming through."

In an effort to not overextend themselves, Crooks – driven by Rob Bacak on drums and bassist Andrew VanVoorhees – performs only three times during South by Southwest, including a party for the Stuff You Should Know podcast during Interactive week.

"It's a huge nerd podcast," Mazour says. "He loves it."

"I do love it," beams Alberts.
- Austin Chronicle

The Mohawk, which tends to host indie rocks shows, has plenty of people bouncing around (and in to one another) on any given night. But dancing involving couples doing actual steps two-steps is another thing. That kind of thing happens in Austin, just not usually at the Red River music club.

That was the scene during this year's free week in January, however, when Austin's Crooks took their turn on the outside stage. It was not an isolated incident. Go see this band — who release their debut full-length album, "The Rain Will Come," this week — play, and more times than not, you will witness spontaneous dancing.

"They did it at Emo's once, too, and one of the guys who worked there came up and said, ‘I have never seen anyone dance like that at Emo's,'?" Crooks front man Josh Mazour says. "I don't know where it comes from. I can't dance. I'll try every once in a while, but more often than not I'll step all over my girlfriend's toes."

The crowds, dancing and not, that seem to follow this band around town, combined with the seemingly endless stream of media praise here and from national outlets including MTV and CMT, points toward something bigger coming for the 4-year-old Crooks.

The people two-stepping at their shows reflects the band's country sound, and that's one element. But "The Rain Will Come," produced by Danny Reisch (who handled Shearwater's latest album), goes beyond the different definitions of country. The shadow of Ennio Morricone's spaghetti western compositions lingers over the band's sound, as does the hybrid music of the Texas Tornados — Tornados accordion player Flaco Jimenez even appears on the record.

The band met Jimenez after playing on a bill with him at Antone's. When a couple of songs seemed appropriate for accordion, they decided to ask him to contribute.

"It was way too easy," Mazour says. "We got him in there as fast as he could before he could change his mind. Nobody can take that from us either. It was recorded, it happened, that's something I've got forever now."

That's something that Mazour, soft-spoken and bearded in the fashion of many a country outlaw, probably wouldn't have dreamed of saying 10 years ago. Born in Omaha, Neb., he spent his early years in Boerne outside San Antonio. Country was in the air, but Mazour listened to rock.

"I had a neighbor when I lived in San Antonio, friends of my parents who lived across the street," Mazour says. "I was probably in fourth or fifth grade, and the husband played guitar, and he really started getting me into music. He gave me one of my first tapes, Nirvana's ‘Nevermind' on cassette."

He asked his parents for a guitar and never stopped playing.

Like thousands of others before and after him, Mazour left his hometown when he was 18 in 2000 for Austin with music on his mind.

"Music was what we did, but we were all just 18-year-olds that wanted to leave Boerne," he says.

Mazour played bass in what he describes as a "terrible garage band." At that point, he wasn't writing songs. He later played guitar in a different band, where he was introduced to harder rock like Hot Snakes and Unwound. When the leader of that band died of a drug overdose, Mazour walked away from music for a couple of years. When he returned, he found his way to country.

"Just one day I just decided — it wasn't like a conscious decision or anything — I just changed directions," he says.

When Crooks began it was a two-piece, with Mazour on guitar and vocals accompanied by a drummer. Mazour says his early songs sounded more like the Rolling Stones. Since then, the band has evolved, growing into a four-piece made up of Sam Alberts (guitar/trumpet/mandolin/banjo/harmonica/piano), Rob Bacak (drums) and Andrew Vanvoorhees (stand-up bass), with an accordion player joining in on some numbers.

Mazour says his songwriting continues to evolve. He talks about wanting to write more traditional country songs, but he says his attitude about his music changes frequently.

"That's the whole thing with songwriting — you can do whatever the hell you want," he says. He writes in his truck, an old aqua-green pickup that only has an AM radio dialed into a couple of country and Tejano stations he loses under bridges.

"It's always when you're not trying," he says. "One day I wake up and want to write something really sincere and moody, and the next day I don't care about that. Some guy hit my truck the other day, and we got into a big argument in the middle of the road, and I wrote a song joking about it." He sings a few bars of the new one, "Toe to Toe," in his South Texas twang: "Toe to toe I want to meet you, toe to toe I'll greet you, so step outside and let's go."

- Austin American Statesman

Why We Dig It: The four guys who make up Crooks do the Outlaw country movement proud. Their gritty sound, honest lyrics and stellar musicianship have led to tremendous critical praise, and rightfully so.

One listen to Crooks' new song, "Bar Stool," gives you a great idea of their personalities both on and off the stage. "We've all got things that weigh on our shoulders," frontman Josh Mazour tells The Boot. "'Bar Stool' is about letting go of those things and enjoying yourself, preferably with a few drinks. Maybe it's also about being irresponsible and drinking too much ... I don't know."

Expect this Austin-based group to gain some Texas-sized popularity very soon, as their new album, The Rain Will Come, featuring more of this classic, lonesome country sound, hits stores May 15.

- AOL “The Boot”

One of the most buzzed about bands from the recent SXSW conference in Austin, is the city’s own Crooks. The band’s sound is definitely country, but this isn’t the Nashville sugar n’ gloss country. They take the lonesome, haunting sounds of Hank Williams Sr. and put their own dusty, rough-and-tumble spin on it.

Their latest album The Rain Will Come comes out on May 15, but in the meantime, the band has given G&G an exclusive song, “One Way to Live” to stream.

“’One Way to Live’ is a moody song about accepting and reveling in this lifestyle. If you’re gonna do it, you might as well do it right. This song is from the perspective of us as a band, going in and out of these places,” says Crooks frontman Josh Mazour about the song’s inspiration.

“There are a lot of places where the walls block out the sun—where they help you to forget the things you should have done…or shouldn’t have. Right or wrong, there are people who rely on those places. I don’t know that I’m one of those people, but I am comfortable drinking with them all day long.”
- Garden & Gun

If you ran into Crooks frontman Josh Mazour on the streets of Austin, it might be fair to wonder: “hipster beard or outlaw country beard?”

The answer is “outlaw country beard,” but as with the bands of that era, Crooks is also reaching underground rock and roll fans with a rueful, hard-edged, and authentic country sound that also flirts with bluegrass, garage, Tejano, mariachi, and Southern rock.

As the band’s bio says (in a rare line from a bio that’s worth quoting): “Comparing Crooks’ country to Nashville radio country is like comparing Cormac McCarthy to Walker, Texas Ranger.”

The four-piece group—frontman Josh Mazour, drummer Rob Bacak, stand-up bassist Andrew VanVoorhees, and jack-of-all-trades Sam Alberts—hail from Boerne, San Antonio, and Austin; recently they added a fifth member in nineteen-year-old accordionist Anthony Ortiz Jr.

But prior to Ortiz’s joining, the band recruited conjunto legend Flaco Jimenez to play accordion on one song from their second album, The Rain Will Come, which will be released Tuesday.

Below, an exclusive preview of that track, “Heart Achin’ Town,” followed by an interview with Mazour:

Were you into this kind of music growing up?
I don’t know. I won’t say I was into it. Growing up in Boerne, you’re always surrounded by country music. I was more into rock music, typically rebellious youth kind of stuff.

But Boerne’s a lot bigger than it was even just twelve years ago. It’s exploded, and anywhere you’ve got construction there’s always radios playing county music and Tejano and music with Southwestern influences. It was something that was just there, literally around you. So I guess I made my way back to it.

What does it mean to self-identify as a country band.
To self-identify?

Do you self-identify as a country band?
Yeah, I think we do. Three years ago we probably didn’t, but now we do. For me, from a songwriting standpoint, I think it’s fun. I can write, like a playfully lonely song, and not take myself too seriously, like Hank Williams, but it can still be a moving song. Real country, the stuff that means something, you have some songs that are just carefree songs and then on the same record you can have some songs that are deeper. I guess that’s just why I like writing music.

As far as getting Flaco Jimenez on the record, did you just decide, why not shoot for the top?
That’s kind of true. We played a show with the Texas Tornados once. Sam and I were talking and he was like, “What if we get Flaco?” He wasn’t really trying to be that serious, but I said, “Well, at least give it shot?”

We’d spent time with him backstage—there was a Spurs game on actually, and Sam and I are from San Antonio, so we talked about basektball before the show. And then Doug Sahm’s son Shawn has property in Boerne and knew I was from Boerne, so we just kind of built a relationship with them. When it came time to ask Flaco if he wanted to do it, he was pretty happy to.

You’ve also got Warren Hood on fiddle for one song, but there’s a lot of other sounds on there—trumpet, banjo, mandolin—that all turn out to be played by Sam. Is he classically trained?
He’s just one of those people who has that ability to pick up anything and learn how to play it. He’ll take lessons to learn how to get better—he’s taking lessons to sharpen up on his banjo skills now—but he’s primary self taught. We were joking, “Yeah, you’re gonna have to go buy an accordion and learn how to play it if Anthony can’t ever be there.” It’s kind of a burden that he’s got now. But I think he likes it, (especially) playing two instruments in one song on stage.

There’s also a song on the record called “My First Gun,” and I saw some video you guys posted at a firing range. Can you outshoot Rick Perry?
(Laughs). Yeah, definitely. My folks have a ranch in Harper. I had my thirtieth birthday the other day and we all went out and shot for hours, ‘til I was in tears: I’ve got this .30-.30 rifle, and those things pack a pretty serious punch. My next gun is an old remake of a single action Army revolvers, an old Colt .45. I‘m pretty excited about picking one of those up.

You’ve previously described your music as “whiskey soaked” and “bar singalongs.” Can you match a few songs from the record to their appropriate drinking accompaniment?
“Bar Stool:” There’s a hole in the wall near my house called the Oakmoor Lounge, and that’s what I was writing that song about. I usually go over there and a have a shot of Jameson and a Lone Star.

“Bendin’ Rules and Breakin’ Hearts” would just be Shiner Bock. That song reminds me of the Continental Club, and usually that’s what we drink when we’re over there.

And “Heart Achin’ Town” would be tequila and Lone Star.

- Texas Monthly

On May 15, the critically-acclaimed Austin, Texas rock outfit Crooks will release The Rain Will Come. The new disc was produced by Danny Reisch (Okkervil River, Spoon, Shearwater), and features Flaco Jiminez of Texas Tornadoes on accordion.

We’ve got a special premiere for you: the title track, a driving slice of country noir, with lonesome guitars and a shuffling beat that mimics wipers on a windshield.

“My parents were raised in very small farming communities in the southern part of Nebraska — so I spent a lot of time going back there during the summers growing up,” Crooks frontman Josh Mazour tells American Songwriter about the song’s genesis. “Everything is dependent on hard work and a little bit of luck, or faith, around there. You don’t know whether a storm is going to come and provide the rain that is needed, or cause damage that makes life more difficult. But you do know that, more often than not, the rain will come. It’s pretty telling of what most people go through, I guess — just in different forms.

“We’d sit outside and watch the skies turn greenish while the clouds started moving around,” Mazour continues. “Eventually we’d have to get in the basement to take cover while it passed. One summer, while I wasn’t there, a tornado destroyed a large part of my grandma’s small town. The next summer things would be alright, and the storms would provide what they needed. It’s an interesting place, and one of my favorites.”

- American Songwriter

A new Austin band called Crooks is causing the locals to take notice. Already they've been praised by local radio station KUT and The Austin American Statesman. They go on at the White Horse at midnight Thursday. Rugged and lonesome, this style of country music makes you want to keep your tab open.

- CMT.com

A four-piece country-rock outfit that likes things moody and traditional, as evidenced by their bassist, who dons an upright. Crooks are bleary-eyed, regretful western music. In other words, the best kind.

- MTV Hive

The sound has a ghost-town aura, a reverberating echo effect that gives the traditional country instrumentation a haunting overtone. An upright bass clangs into an accordion, guitars, fiddle, banjo, drums, mandolin and even trumpet. There is a sense of danger, of being in the middle of a dark honky-tonk on the outskirts of town.

I’m talking about Austin country band Crooks. Josh Mazour, Sam Alberts, Andrew VanVoorhees and Rob Bacak formed in 2007 originally as a two-piece entity playing stripped-down gigs at Austin dives. Today, Crooks are playing bigger venues and enjoying the critical success of The Rain Will Come, the group’s debut CD released earlier this year. The disc features a guest appearance by legendary accordionist Flaco Jimenez of Texas Tornados fame. It was produced by Danny Reisch, who has worked with Austin’s Bright Light Social Hour, Okkervil River and others.

The Rain Will Come has been hailed by Texas Monthly, American Songwriter, The Austin Chronicle and Austin American-Statesman, to name a few. It contains a slew of sinewy, rambunctious tunes such as “Pull Up Your Boots,” “Bendin’ Rules and Breakin’ Hearts” and “Earn My Right.”
- Dallas Morning News

“Crooks is also reaching underground rock and roll fans with a rueful, hard-edged, and authentic country sound that also flirts with bluegrass, garage, Tejano, mariachi, and Southern rock.”
- Texas Monthly

“Rugged and lonesome, this style of country music makes you want to keep your tab open.”
- CMT

Texas band most likely to score big in 2012 - KUT Austin

Texas Music Matter's, David Brown's choice
KUT 90.5 - KUT Austin Radio

Once upon a time, long before tech boomed or Rick parried, Austin was the home of outlaw country. But it seems today’s hyper-commercialized rhinestone cowboys have sent genuine purveyors of that rough and tumble, heart-wrenching, hell-raising music on the lam.

Enter Crooks, a four piece Austin band (Josh Mazour, Sam Alberts, Rob Bacak, Andrew VanVoorhees) whose refreshingly original sound harkens back to outlaw days of yore.

“We lean on certain things but try to do it in a different way,” says lead singer Josh Mazour, who with his long dusty blonde locks looks every bit a latter-day Willie Nelson. “We’re a bunch of guys who played in rock bands before we played in a country band, so I guess we don’t follow the traditional approach. We play country the way we want to play it.”

Their way is at once unabashedly good-timing and alarmingly sincere. Tales of hard-luck loners, the open road, and the exhilarating potential of a new gun create visceral soundscapes. “Like you’re in Texas, drinking whisky out in the middle of nowhere,” says Mazour.

We’re a bunch of guys who played in rock bands before we played in a country band, so I guess we don’t follow the traditional approach. We play country the way we want to play it. Crooks’ 2010 EP “Lonesome, Rowdy and Restless” won critical acclaim not only from the Austin music cognoscenti, but also from the likes of MTV and music blogs nationwide that adored the band’s gritty, evocative sound, which often features spaghetti western style trumpet. “That’s kind of our signature,” Mazour allows. “We started humming trumpet melodies at practice one day…and realized it works, and people love it.”

Crooks is currently recording its first full-length album, expected by the new year. “The overall theme is hard-working people trying to make ends meet, but it’s going to be all over the map soundwise: bluegrass, Tejano, the trumpets, ballads, maybe some rock. I’m really excited,” Mazour says. And with good reason: the band is collaborating with legendary Texas Tornados accordionist Flaco Jimenez on a few songs, and has teamed up with Austin producer extraordinaire Danny Reich for the album.

In addition to regular shows around town, Crooks will performing at CultureMap Austin’s Official Launch Party on October 6, and at FunFunFun Fest on November 6. Then what’s next?

“Get the record done by new years,” says Mazour, “tour in February, hit South by Southwest, and then back on the road. We’ll probably start talking to labels, but when the time’s right that’ll all come along. Until then, it’s been going really well just doing it on our own.”

Spoken like a true outlaw.
- CultureMap Austin

At this rate, and with a new album under their belt, Crooks may well be the next big thing to come out of Austin to radios and record stores near you.

- AwaitingtheFlood.com

promising newcomers in Crooks... - Austin AV Club

Because in Townes' town, where for a lot of years there was country and "everything else," Crooks aren't a throwback so much as a study in some of the best parts of traditional western American music — two-step, tear-in-beer laments, spaghetti western dustups — distilled into sharp, crowd-herding sets. - Austin 360

Although Crooks presented themselves as four dudes just standing around in a field looking at nothing in particular, their horn-infused country song “Downtown” caught us like a rattlesnake jumping out of a pricker bush. And like all good reptiles, there’s a hint of underhandedness that permeates this tune, making us think Crooks could be Austin’s next break-out.

- MTV

Austin, Texas band Crooks live for the nights when all you've got is beer. The band exists for the nights when the golden stuff has never tasted better. This isn't at all to say that they exist for the good nights, or the nights when the beer tastes really good and downright refreshing. Such a suggestion would lead one to believe that a celebration was in order and the frosty mug after frosty mug was just plainly hitting the spot. No sir, Crooks exists for the nights when shit couldn't get any worse and bellying up to the bar is the only action worth taking, and at some point in that night, the skies part somewhat, even if the furrowed brow never does. It stays cracked downward in the shape of two fuzzy lightning bolts as the cheeks turn rosier. The characters that lead singer Josh Mazour creates and consorts with in Crooks songs are the kind that come from a mean streak, from a long-ago time of vigilante justice and lawlessness, who will scrap and brawl in a heartbeat, if they have to - even if they don't have to. They might just get ornery for no good reason and there's nothing anyone can do about it. They'll pull guns. They'll pull knives and they will leave marks should anyone get too close or say the wrong thing at the wrong time. The songs sound as if they've got a little chip on their shoulders and there's no telling when they're going to get nasty, but they never seem to. There's just that threat in the air, as if everything might turn purple and rough any second, should someone breathe on someone else incorrectly. Mazour leads his band through these gritty, hard scrabble numbers, with a touch of mariachi band, a take on outlaw country and western and with a singing style that partially recalls Gordon Gano singing "Blister In The Sun." When he sings, "Some folks like whiskey/Some folks like pain/Some nights will go down easy/They're all the same," on "One Way To Live," we're left questioning which category we fall into. We finally decide that we'll be the way all of the members of Crooks seem to be - happily straddling that line between the pain and what they wash it all down with.

- Daytrotter.com

The title of Crooks’ new four-song EP, Lonesome, Rowdy and Restless, sums up the appeal of this promising local quartet. With classic country grit, East Austin edges, and mariachi flourishes that recall the Southwestern landscapes of early Calexico, Crooks’ hardscrabble Americana sits comfortably on the Continental’s bar stools. - Austin Chronicle

Crooks are a top-shelf roots quartet that’s been kicking up some dust around their hometown of Austin, TX for a couple years, and if their Lonesome, Rowdy and Restless EP is any indication, these boys might want to look into losing their day jobs. Sure, anyone can buy and acoustic guitar and flannel shirt and fly the roots flag, but Crooks do all the little things right. Sure is a little rough hewn in spots, but the final product is nothing short of authentic. With an upcoming Daytrotter session and SXSW right around the corner, it might be only a matter of time before these fellas get too big for their britches.

- MyOldKentuckyBlog.com

There’s nothing quite like a classic high lonesome sound to get straight to the heart of every country and roots music fan, especially when it’s done right and with honest emotion. This Austin, TX, four-piece sure got it right.

A follow-up to 2008's full-length, self-titled album (and a precursor to this year’s second full-length), “Lonesome, Rowdy and Restless” packs quite a whallop in such a small package.

The images come straight out of Country & Western pulp fiction: bar stools, 18 wheelers, whiskey drinkin’, houndogs, small dusty towns, endless highways and regret, all of which would teeter on the edge of cliche with a lesser band. Fear not, for Crooks pull it off with gusto.

Frontman Josh Mazour’s vocals have the requisite honeydripped twang that anchors multi-instrumentalist Sam Alberts’s soaring and forlorn harmonies. Alberts (guitar, mandolin, trumpet) adds to the gritty and melancholy atmosphere with perfect spaghetti-western sound.

There’s a delightfully frustrating conflict between a sense of place and the itch to take off down the highway, if simply for escape. “River Road” opens with the restless “Back home we’d lie in the grass/And we’d talk about the future and past/All things that we don’t know we don’t know we don’t know,” while “Downtown” is as dark and tragic as any classic Louvin Brothers or Gram Parsons song.

“18 Wheels” is pure roadweary ballad bravado — nowhere to go and plenty of time to get there — and “Bar Stool” gallops with rockabilly stomp and a firm nod to Hank Williams Sr., featuring one damn fine hook. The EP is a quick ride, the first few miles of a road trip, and we look forward to the rest of the trek with Crooks.

- Awaitingtheflood.com

There’s nothing quite like a classic high lonesome sound to get straight to the heart of every country and roots music fan, especially when it’s done right and with honest emotion. This Austin, TX, four-piece sure got it right.

A follow-up to 2008's full-length, self-titled album (and a precursor to this year’s second full-length), “Lonesome, Rowdy and Restless” packs quite a whallop in such a small package.

The images come straight out of Country & Western pulp fiction: bar stools, 18 wheelers, whiskey drinkin’, houndogs, small dusty towns, endless highways and regret, all of which would teeter on the edge of cliche with a lesser band. Fear not, for Crooks pull it off with gusto.

Frontman Josh Mazour’s vocals have the requisite honeydripped twang that anchors multi-instrumentalist Sam Alberts’s soaring and forlorn harmonies. Alberts (guitar, mandolin, trumpet) adds to the gritty and melancholy atmosphere with perfect spaghetti-western sound.

There’s a delightfully frustrating conflict between a sense of place and the itch to take off down the highway, if simply for escape. “River Road” opens with the restless “Back home we’d lie in the grass/And we’d talk about the future and past/All things that we don’t know we don’t know we don’t know,” while “Downtown” is as dark and tragic as any classic Louvin Brothers or Gram Parsons song.

“18 Wheels” is pure roadweary ballad bravado — nowhere to go and plenty of time to get there — and “Bar Stool” gallops with rockabilly stomp and a firm nod to Hank Williams Sr., featuring one damn fine hook. The EP is a quick ride, the first few miles of a road trip, and we look forward to the rest of the trek with Crooks.

- Awaitingtheflood.com

Crooks digs up deeply planted Texas country roots and dusts them off with lonesome guitar, southwestern horns, and Josh Mazour’s equal parts aching and rowdy vocals. While the local trio pulls no punches with its country sound, they also add a slice of Deer Tick’s indie impulse live, making them one of the few genuinely country bred acts that fits just as easily at home in Red River’s clubs. - AustinSound.net

Crooks digs up deeply planted Texas country roots and dusts them off with lonesome guitar, southwestern horns, and Josh Mazour’s equal parts aching and rowdy vocals. While the local trio pulls no punches with its country sound, they also add a slice of Deer Tick’s indie impulse live, making them one of the few genuinely country bred acts that fits just as easily at home in Red River’s clubs. - AustinSound.net

Crooks’ trip through the bleaker stretches of country began with its bleary-eyed self-titled debut, and the band—now a quartet—burrows its way deeper into the dark heart of rural America on the new Lonesome, Rowdy, And Restless EP. The record delivers large quantities of those titular adjectives, all treated with the wounded hiccup of lead vocalist Josh Mazour. Though Mazour and his bandmates sidestep the roadhouse on the Neil Young-esque barn-burner “18 Wheels,” they’re still at their strongest pretending to back up Hank Williams Sr. or providing the theme to a lost Sergio Leone epic. - Austin AV Club/The Onion

Crooks’ trip through the bleaker stretches of country began with its bleary-eyed self-titled debut, and the band—now a quartet—burrows its way deeper into the dark heart of rural America on the new Lonesome, Rowdy, And Restless EP. The record delivers large quantities of those titular adjectives, all treated with the wounded hiccup of lead vocalist Josh Mazour. Though Mazour and his bandmates sidestep the roadhouse on the Neil Young-esque barn-burner “18 Wheels,” they’re still at their strongest pretending to back up Hank Williams Sr. or providing the theme to a lost Sergio Leone epic. - Austin AV Club/The Onion

Crooks is Josh Mazour on guitar and vocals, Rob Bacak on drums, and Sam Alberts playing everything else (trumpet, guitar, banjo, etc.). I first saw them at the Mohawk’s inside stage early last year. I actually don’t even remember which band I originally went to see. The only thing I recall is Crooks stealing the show.

Normally, I'm not even a huge fan of country music unless it's Western Swing or Outlaw County, both of which are obviously pretty specific genres. Crooks, fortunately for me, essentially falls into the latter category. They incorporate a little of what I call Forest Rock (others may call it indie folk) along with some blues and a slew of other things that make them a true Texas band. Also, and this may be the best part, Crooks are probably the only band you’ll find on Red River playing any sort of variation of outlaw country.
The song that got me hooked on Crooks was My First, which has a steady strum reminiscent of He War by Cat Power. What really makes it work though is the trumpet. I love how it soars throughout and gives the song a dramatic quality. Listen to it and you can just picture a saloon, whisky, and a good old fashioned bar fight. Or, if you're feeling dangerous, an old Western town where two gun slingers are in the middle of a Mexican standoff.
By the way, I read this was the first song that they wrote as a band. When a song like that is your starting point, you know you’ve got something special. Hank Williams and Johnny Cash would be proud.



- SideOneTrackOne.com – Dan Corbin

Crooks is Josh Mazour on guitar and vocals, Rob Bacak on drums, and Sam Alberts playing everything else (trumpet, guitar, banjo, etc.). I first saw them at the Mohawk’s inside stage early last year. I actually don’t even remember which band I originally went to see. The only thing I recall is Crooks stealing the show.

Normally, I'm not even a huge fan of country music unless it's Western Swing or Outlaw County, both of which are obviously pretty specific genres. Crooks, fortunately for me, essentially falls into the latter category. They incorporate a little of what I call Forest Rock (others may call it indie folk) along with some blues and a slew of other things that make them a true Texas band. Also, and this may be the best part, Crooks are probably the only band you’ll find on Red River playing any sort of variation of outlaw country.
The song that got me hooked on Crooks was My First, which has a steady strum reminiscent of He War by Cat Power. What really makes it work though is the trumpet. I love how it soars throughout and gives the song a dramatic quality. Listen to it and you can just picture a saloon, whisky, and a good old fashioned bar fight. Or, if you're feeling dangerous, an old Western town where two gun slingers are in the middle of a Mexican standoff.
By the way, I read this was the first song that they wrote as a band. When a song like that is your starting point, you know you’ve got something special. Hank Williams and Johnny Cash would be proud.



- SideOneTrackOne.com – Dan Corbin

Rare is the musical portmanteau that triggers the gag reflex quite like “country rock,” but Crooks’ quick-and-dirty four-song EP exemplifies the genre at its hard-drinking, windswept best. It’s country from the Hank Williams Sr. school — damaged, dusty and bleary-eyed — injected with the stomp of Red River Street. Josh Mazour’s wounded Southern drawl anchors the perfect harmonies of opener “River Road” all the way through to closer “Bar Stool,” a honky-tonk swinger that calculatedly risks falling into Pat Green cliché but for a killer hook and Brian Salvi’s ace fiddle turn. But it’s “Downtown” that finds Crooks at their best — hard-edged and foreboding, with an operatic grandness driven home by Sam Alberts’ stirring trumpet.

- Austin American Statesman/ Austin 360, Patrick Caldwell

Rare is the musical portmanteau that triggers the gag reflex quite like “country rock,” but Crooks’ quick-and-dirty four-song EP exemplifies the genre at its hard-drinking, windswept best. It’s country from the Hank Williams Sr. school — damaged, dusty and bleary-eyed — injected with the stomp of Red River Street. Josh Mazour’s wounded Southern drawl anchors the perfect harmonies of opener “River Road” all the way through to closer “Bar Stool,” a honky-tonk swinger that calculatedly risks falling into Pat Green cliché but for a killer hook and Brian Salvi’s ace fiddle turn. But it’s “Downtown” that finds Crooks at their best — hard-edged and foreboding, with an operatic grandness driven home by Sam Alberts’ stirring trumpet.

- Austin American Statesman/ Austin 360, Patrick Caldwell

When I, your Austin Music Minute maven Laurie Gallardo, first heard Austin band Crooks, it was almost as if they’d captured that gritty spaghetti-western atmosphere in their music. That’s what it reminded me of, but without trying too hard - just stripped down and genuine. They have a way of injecting blues-ridden, White-Lightnin’ country with raw rock ‘n’ roll intensity. Their new EP, Lonesome, Rowdy and Restless, has all the elements of classic outlaw country without leaning on a cliché.

Be sure to join Crooks as they celebrate the release of their new EP at their show Saturday night at the Scoot Inn, 1308 E. 4th St. at Navasota. There’s quite an attractive line-up that’s sure to satisfy those countrified/roots-rock cravings all across the board: Jenny and the Corn Ponies, Chris Brecht and Dead Flowers (check out Chris’ album Dead Flower Motel, and tell him I sent you), and Darren Hoff and The Hard Times. Get there around 9 p.m.

Fetch me a cowboy hat. I already got me some boots.


- KUT

CROOKS

Recipe for a country band that’s going places: start with the perfect front man, throw in a guy who can apparently master any musical instrument you place in his hands, mix with an utterly unflappable standing bassist and drummer. That, in essence, is Austin band Crooks.

One of my biggest problems with today’s country scene is the omnipresence of the faux-country look. Too many musicians appear to have just wandered in off the set of some sanitized, stylized Hollywood vision of the West. Crooks front man Josh Mazour, by contrast, appears to have sprung fully-formed from a crumbling, sepia-tone photo of the Old West: with his lanky physique, long hair, handlebar mustache, old flat-brim hat and well-worn boots. The effect is only enhanced when he opens his mouth behind the microphone — singing with a slow, powerful twang and drawl that stretches on an on like ocean waves and reminds a listener of the sound of a young Willie Nelson.

Crooks’ SxSW set was all about down-tempo country in the classic style: dominated by minor chords and full of grim imagery of love lost, loneliness, drunkenness, and murder.


Inspired instrumentation, courtesy of Sam Alberts, adds enormously to the impact of Crooks’ music. His mandolin and banjo work is excellent and Alberts is a credible vocalist in his own right. His ability to deliver powerful guitar lines, either as classic country or as rock or blues dressed up in a country suit, is an excellent example of the Austin guitar style (which defines a good guitarist as one who is able to play country, rock or blues in the style of the other two). But it is on trumpet that Alberts really shines, adding a crescendo of brassy melody to the group’s sound. His range on trumpet is admirable, sometimes playing with the old-school trumpet sound that once supported Marty Robbins and Johnny Cash and at other times adding strong Western accents a la “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.”

Country and rock can sometimes be unkind to bassists and drummers. Often, it is difficult for them to standout – unless they do something wrong. But Andrew Van Voorhees, on drums, and Rob Bacak, Crooks’ recently added standing bassist, do a first-rate job of framing and anchoring the band’s sound.

There was one up-tempo song in Crooks’ set. It was, of course, a drinking song.

Crooks has the sound, and the look, to go far. If I was a betting man, I’d put down some money we’ll be hearing much more from them in the future.
- CountryMusicPride.com

CROOKS

Recipe for a country band that’s going places: start with the perfect front man, throw in a guy who can apparently master any musical instrument you place in his hands, mix with an utterly unflappable standing bassist and drummer. That, in essence, is Austin band Crooks.

One of my biggest problems with today’s country scene is the omnipresence of the faux-country look. Too many musicians appear to have just wandered in off the set of some sanitized, stylized Hollywood vision of the West. Crooks front man Josh Mazour, by contrast, appears to have sprung fully-formed from a crumbling, sepia-tone photo of the Old West: with his lanky physique, long hair, handlebar mustache, old flat-brim hat and well-worn boots. The effect is only enhanced when he opens his mouth behind the microphone — singing with a slow, powerful twang and drawl that stretches on an on like ocean waves and reminds a listener of the sound of a young Willie Nelson.

Crooks’ SxSW set was all about down-tempo country in the classic style: dominated by minor chords and full of grim imagery of love lost, loneliness, drunkenness, and murder.


Inspired instrumentation, courtesy of Sam Alberts, adds enormously to the impact of Crooks’ music. His mandolin and banjo work is excellent and Alberts is a credible vocalist in his own right. His ability to deliver powerful guitar lines, either as classic country or as rock or blues dressed up in a country suit, is an excellent example of the Austin guitar style (which defines a good guitarist as one who is able to play country, rock or blues in the style of the other two). But it is on trumpet that Alberts really shines, adding a crescendo of brassy melody to the group’s sound. His range on trumpet is admirable, sometimes playing with the old-school trumpet sound that once supported Marty Robbins and Johnny Cash and at other times adding strong Western accents a la “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.”

Country and rock can sometimes be unkind to bassists and drummers. Often, it is difficult for them to standout – unless they do something wrong. But Andrew Van Voorhees, on drums, and Rob Bacak, Crooks’ recently added standing bassist, do a first-rate job of framing and anchoring the band’s sound.

There was one up-tempo song in Crooks’ set. It was, of course, a drinking song.

Crooks has the sound, and the look, to go far. If I was a betting man, I’d put down some money we’ll be hearing much more from them in the future.
- CountryMusicPride.com

Now that Austin has dutifully plowed through ’80s new wave, ’70s soft rock, ’60s psychedelia, and—most recently—’90s fuzz, what genre is the next to be slapped with a fresh coat of postmillennial paint? By the looks of Crooks, gen-yoo-wine country, stripped of its crossover pop sheen and returned to its hard-drinkin’, rough-and-tumble roots. Just like many of the garage revivalists in town, Crooks approaches its blood-on-the-saddle ballads with a bristling undercurrent of bleary-eyed paranoia; never have those wide-open Texas skies seemed quite so threatening. - Austin Onion/Decider/A.V. Club

Have you ever given the ABC answer? You know: Someone asks you what kind of music you listen to and you say, "Anything but country." Austin's Crooks are exactly the reason why that's a dumb answer. Imagine country music that isn't made for prime-time reality TV shows and that isn't polished on shiny Nashville stages. Instead, imagine country music that is honed in dive bars and played before small crowds of drunken 20- and 30-somethings who grew up wearing flannel and listening to grunge. This is Red River District country. It's throwback, but not cliché. It's inspired by Hank Williams and Gram Parsons, not Toby Keith or Keith Urban. Crooks spent last year recording an album, and today they officially release the thing with a show at Mohawk. Throw in like-minded folk and indie-rock bands Frank Smith and Western Ghost House, and you're looking at a solid all-local Thursday night bill. - 'Nites Blog

Nowadays, “country” (like “rock”) is a meaningless catchall applied to the twangy pop of groups like Sugarland and Taylor Swift, but an increasing number of kids like Austin’s Crooks and Frank Smith seem intent on reclaiming its traditional roots. Call it “indie-billy”: Both bands dabble in high, lonesome sounds played with bluegrass and honky-tonk instruments, but filter them through a postmodern range of moods that eschews easy sentimentality or hokey phrasings. With its Ennio Morricone trumpet flourishes, Crooks—celebrating the release of its debut CD here—is the weary gunslinger, while Frank Smith’s battered, fragile harmonies are those of the earnest sharecropper about to lose the farm. To paraphrase David Allen Coe, if that ain’t country, it’s a damn good joke. - Austin Decider/Onion