Video Du Jour: The Le Roi Brothers

There’s even a dance floor at the Güero’s outdoor stage – that’s Steve Doerr behind the dancers, and Grady Pinkerton on the right.

In Austin over the weekend to visit the college student, we killed some time down on the South Congress drag and dropped by Güero’s Taco Bar. The outdoor patio on a Saturday night is cozy and inviting, and those misting devices everywhere kept us all really cool.

But the coolest thing was the opportunity to catch up with the Le Roi Brothers, an Austin rock and roll fixture since the early 1980s. They played for free at Güero’s, and there were many in the crowd experiencing the Le Rois’ roots-rockabilly for the very first time. We’ve loved the LeRois since 1984, when we caught ’em in a small club in San Antonio.

Weathering personnel turnovers and tragedy, the Le Rois have over the years become an Austin tradition. One of the main reasons is that Steve Doerr, the founding member/lead guitarist/singer, is such a nice guy. He dropped by our table after the Le Rois called it a night and we had a great chat about the “old days.”

Steve’s brother Joe is still in the band, he just had a family thing on Saturday. So, apparently is drummer Mike Buck – Buck was one of the Fabulous Thunderbirds before he was a Le Roi Brother and he’s played with many different Austin artists over the years.

Buck (who is one of the co-owners of Antone’s Record Shop in town) was also absent Saturday; he had a gig with his wife Eve Monsees. Eve is of course the “Eve” of Eve and the Exiles, and we were lucky to have the Exiles’ hot guitarist Grady Pinkerton also sitting in the Le Rois on Saturday.

When my wife and I caught some Le Roi Brothers shows in the 1980s we were dating; on Saturday we had our kids in tow. So it was kind of like family night at Güero’s.

Here’s “Pretty Little Lights Of Town,” an Austin classic (from 1985)!

The Le Roi Brothers Facebook page

And for good measure, let’s include “Ain’t I’m A Dog,” with Joe and Steve Doerr on vocals from 2009 at the Continental Club.