Reverend Horton Heat

Loaded guns, space heaters, and big skies. Welcome to the lethal littered landscape of Jim Heath’s imagination. True to his high evan- gelical calling, Jim is a Revelator, both revealing & reinterpreting the country-blues-rock roots of Ameri- can music. He’s a time-travelling space-cowboy on a endless inter- stellar musical tour, and we are all the richer & “psychobillier” for get- ting to tag along.

Seeing REVEREND HORTON HEAT live is a transformative experience. Flames come off the guitars. Heat singes your skin. There’s nothing like the primal tribal rock & roll transfiguration of a Reverend Horton Heat show. Jim becomes a slicked-back 1950′s rock & roll shaman channeling Screamin’ Jay Hawkins through Buddy Holly, while Jimbo incinerates the Stand-Up Bass. And then there are the “Heatettes”. Those foxy rockabilly chicks dressed in poodle-skirts and cowboy boots slamming the night away. It’s like being magically transported into a Teen Exploitation picture from the 1950′s that’s currently taking place in the future. Listening to the REVEREND HORTON HEAT is tantamount to injecting pure musical nitrous into the hot-rod engine of your heart. The Reverend’s commandants are simple.

ROCK HARD, DRIVE FAST, AND LIVE TRUE.

And no band on this, or any other, planet rocks harder, drives faster, or lives truer than the Reverend Horton Heat. These “itinerant preachers” actually practice what they preach. They live their lives by the Gospel of Rock & Roll. From the High-Octane Spaghetti Western Wall of Sound in “Big Sky” — to the dark driving frenetic paranoia of “400 Bucks” – to the brain-melting Western Psychedelic Garage purity of “Psychobilly Freakout” — The Rev’s music is the perfect soundtrack to the Drive-In Movie of your life.

Jim Heath & Jimbo Wallace have chewed up more road than the Google Maps drivers. For twenty five Psychobilly years, they have blazed an indelible, unforgettable, and meteoric trail across the globe with their unique blend of musical virtuosity, legendary showmanship, and mythic imagery. “Okay it’s time for me to put this loaded gun down, jump in my Five- Oh Ford, and nurture my pig on the outskirts of Houston. I’ll be bringing my love whip. See y’all later.” - Carty Talkington Writer/Director
 
Rev your engines and catch the sermon on the road as it’s preached by everybody’s favorite Reverend. 
 

Rachel started learning violin in public school starting around 6th grade. One of her scholarships for college included classical violin. After leaving college she returned home to work at a mental hospital temporarily, to get a feel for the field she was about to pursue her Doctorate in, Psychology. She also wanted to help her parents Klaus and Julia, naturalized German-American citizens, as her mother was a recent cancer survivor and her father an amputee. Her parents continually urged her to pay a visit to a local bar where their good friend Smilin’ Bob Lewis played with a bluegrass band every Thursday. She finally went and the course of her life changed forever.

Her Mentor, Smilin’ Bob
From the moment they met, Rachel and Smilin’ Bob hit it off. He saw something in her and immediately assumed a mentorship/second father role. The pair was vastly different, 30 years different in age, one a young girl, the other a grizzled war veteran who had lived several lifetimes before he turned 21. They became best friends, constant companions, and bandmates. After the bluegrass band started to fall apart, Rachel discovered that Bob’s real passion was his one man band. He played everything with strings and a lot of things without. Anything he touched became an instrument. He played the slide guitar and she was hooked from the first note.

She began spending all her free time steeping in his mastery of all things Delta. His soul, improvisational spirit, humor, bravery, nobility, generosity and encyclopedic knowledge of southern heritage music left an indelible mark on Rachel. The pair was practically attached at the hip, jamming for days on end in the livingroom, Rachel listening, absorbing, mimicking everything her hero demonstrated. In a couple short years she had gone from a classical violinist, still timid about improvising, to a multi-instrumentalist unafraid to try just about anything. She stopped believing in “mistakes” per Bob’s instruction, and grew exponentially in all things musical. He had a special fondness for Delta and heritage music but played every style well, exposing Rachel to a vast collection of influence in their time together. They began a band they called Tyrannosaurus Chicken, and over the next years he passed on his knowledge and skills to the next generation, preserving a priceless legacy, as they began gaining a cult-like regional following and rising through festival billings.

April 2019 the pair received the devastating news that Bob had late stage lung cancer. Rachel quit playing the next few months and stayed home to care for her bandmate, who began chemotherapy almost immediately. He was the strongest person she ever knew. He endured so much suffering in his life yet he was never broken.

We lost him in late July 2019. He knew he would not be able to stay with her forever but had prepared her for this eventuality. She had started practicing her own one person band set of covers and originals at the house, under his guidance and approval.

She knew he was proud of her, and wants to continue to do what he would have wanted her to do. She and his children have started a fund to support one of his dearest causes, providing resources such as instruments and lessons to children in need.

She and Bob always wanted to use music to connect people to each other, and to make the world a better place however they could.

Rising from the shock and grief of her loss, Rachel has only become more determined to preserve Delta cultural legacy, even as she makes her own contribution. She plays a form of Blues rooted in the most primitive and raw beginnings of this heritage, with her own soulful interpretation. Her original songs and covers, sometimes changed almost beyond recognition with regard to chords and lyrics, are frequently improvisational, and share an uncontrived emotionality best seen live. During her set she follows one rule above all: Play what you Feel.

She has plans to include many more people in her musical endeavors, bringing as of yet unreleased full band compositions to life, but for now, she hones her impressive solo show with every performance, and tours as a one woman act.