Turn It Up — A Dirty River Boys Drive

I was easing the truck toward home tonight, nothing remarkable about the drive. Same stretch of road, same tired headlights carving a narrow path through the dark. Shuffle was on, my mind drifting the way it does after a long day, when the speakers caught me off guard.

Falcon Song came on.

No warning. No buildup. Just that opening pull, and suddenly the cab felt smaller and the night felt louder. That song doesn’t ask for your attention — it takes it. I didn’t reach for the volume knob. Didn’t need to. “Falcon Song” knows exactly how loud it ought to be.

Right then, I was back in that old Dirty River Boys world — a sound that smelled like desert dust and border-town heat. Fiddle cutting sharp as barbed wire, rhythm driving harder than it had any right to, songs built for sweat-soaked rooms and long stretches of highway. The kind of music that doesn’t let you sit still, even when you’re alone in a truck with nothing but road ahead.

I started thinking about how Marco Gutierrez and Trinidad Leal would later help pioneer the West Texas Exiles. Different chapter, same handwriting. Same grit. Same refusal to slow down just because the world asks you to.

When “Falcon Song” wound down, I didn’t even pretend I was going to change it. I let the next track roll. Then the next. Then the next after that. Before I knew it, I was deep into the River Boys catalog, the road getting shorter and the miles slipping by unnoticed.

That’s what the Dirty River Boys always were to me — not just a band, but a rock show. The kind that kept me moving on for a good long while. There was a stretch of life where they carried more weight than I realized at the time. Nights, miles, and moments I didn’t yet know how to name. When their music was on, stopping didn’t feel like an option.

I damn sure miss that El Paso sound. Miss how it wasn’t polished or polite. Miss how it felt like it belonged to the land it came from. Some music fades with time. This kind just waits patiently for the road to get quiet enough to remind you why it mattered.

Tonight, the Dirty River Boys rode shotgun all the way home. And I had to listen to every damn bit of

Ace of Spades Still Cuts the Deck

West Texas Exiles tip the hat to Motörhead & Lemmy Kilmister

Motörhead’s “Ace of Spades” Loud, reckless, and honest in the way only Lemmy Kilmister ever managed to be — a song that doesn’t care if you win or lose, just that you play the hand hard.

This week, the West Texas Exiles threw their own chips on the table, releasing a raw, no-frills cover of the Motörhead classic in honor of what would’ve been Lemmy’s 80th birthday. No polish. No apology. Just volume, grit, and respect.

What makes this one hit different is the story behind it — carried by the Exiles’ drummer, Trinidad.

“Many moons ago, I had the honor of meeting Lemmy. We talked road stories over his signature Jack & Coke — Hendrix days in Europe, his love for Little Richard, and the kind of life most folks only pretend to live. At one point he looked at me and said, ‘Trinidad — your name’s a winner.’”

That’s the kind of moment you don’t forget.

That’s the kind of thing you carry with you into every barroom, back room, and stage you ever step on again.

Lemmy wasn’t just the frontman of Motörhead — he was Motörhead. A songwriter who blurred the lines between punk, metal, and rock ’n’ roll long before anyone cared to define genres. “Ace of Spades” wasn’t about gambling so much as it was about living without hedging your bets. Born to lose. Live to win.

This cover was first cooked up during the long quiet of the COVID lockdown — a solo production experiment on a song that never stopped rattling around in Trini’s head. Now it’s finally been turned loose, and there couldn’t be a better time for it than now.

Because Lemmy would’ve hated sentimentality. But he would’ve loved this.

Turn it up.

Play it loud.

Raise a Jack & Coke to the man who proved you don’t need to clean it up to make it last.

There’ll never be another Lemmy Kilmister — but the noise he left behind still echoes.

Volume 1

Having seen these guys play more than once and falling in love with their sounds of Blues and Folk mixed with Rock and Roll. Not to mention the guys that make up the band- West Texas Exiles- a side project of this group of friends who found each other down the Texas Hill Country after each leaving West Texas for their own reasons. The band members in this Austin based crowd hail from El Paso Amarillo and Lubbock.

Volume 1 has been a long awaited album for me and I am happy to be able to announce that it’s finally here. I am lucky enough to have seen these guys live and got to meet each of them. Daniel Davis, Eric Harrison, Marco Gutierrez, and Trinidad Leal.

I was originally introduced to the Exiles by Mason Server of the band Mason and the Gin Line. I have heard their stories and their songs and now I am excited to share this sound with the world of my readers!

Check out Hotel Tomorrow as well as the rest of the West Texas Exile Collection , a sound bigger than the West Texas sky.

Pancho.