A haunting wind stirs across the barren wasteland that was once this country’s heartland. Nothing grows but the deepening sand drifts against an abandoned clapboard farmhouse. This is America in the 1930’s. The Dust Bowl. In many ways the landscape of American music, once so vibrant and fertile, has gradually deteriorated to a virtual wasteland as well.

The Cosmic Dust Devils have risen up as a transient wind of change, stirring up all that is left of the pride and the glory. They are carried aloft to heights once imagined but long forgotten, across restless sands to a time and place where people cultivated their ambitions with great care…a time so different from today where giant industrial machines, (with reckless abandon), devour these precious resources for profit and self-gratification.

From this dust and desolation, hope still endures. Hope is in the hearts of those who will courageously band together and sacrifice of themselves for the benefit of all. Hope brings forth from this dust an abundance of goodness to feed a hungry nation…a nation hungry for something fresh, for something real, for something honest, for a return to the days of possibility. And, when the dust has settled and the new day begins, may they once again make their music in the spirit of those who have gone before. It is what gets us through another working day.

It is the music of this country.

“I was raised in a household divided by musical tastes. On one end of the house we had my folks listening to Johnny Cash and Marty Robbins and on the other end my older brother and sisters were battling it out with the Stones, Dylan, Buffalo Springfield and the Beatles. I guess you could say I got caught in the crossfire,”says Dust Devils’ founder Kevin Higgins. Like any teenager, he would eventually set out to seek his own musical identity, sifting through country rock sounds of the ‘70’s (Poco, the Eagles) before stumbling headlong into Southern rock. It was the down-home philosophy, the rebellious spirit and the soaring, melodic guitar work of bands like The Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd that brought it all around for Kevin. “I was flying pretty high on the whole Skynyrd thing until it all came crashing down in a field in Mississippi.” It was on that tragic day in October of ’77 that everything started to change musically for Higgins. “That pretty much marked the end of an era for me. Not to take anything away from the likes of Molly Hatchett and .38 Special, but, it just wasn’t quite the same without Skynyrd.”

As the ‘70’s gave way to the ‘80’s and the “style over substance” MTV generation, Southern rock dropped out of the mainstream. The sound was soon replaced by synthesizers and hair bands on one end of the spectrum, and the ever-growing assembly line of generic hits coming out of Nashville on the other. “I felt a little like a stranger in a strange land. I couldn’t relate to much of anything that was on the radio. Then somebody turned me on to Steve Earle and I pretty much immersed myself into the whole sub-culture of singer/songwriters.” By the time the 1990’s rolled around, Higgins had turned his back on the L.A. rock scene, sold his Marshall stack, and began chipping away at layers of built-up musical sediment. Buried somewhere deep inside was a songwriter fighting to get out.

Vocalist Barbara Malteze was also influenced by Southern rock of another gender. “Some think it might’ve been Janis, but it was really Joyce Kennedy (lead singer) from Atlanta’s ‘Mother’s Finest’ who was a major influence on me. She epitomized ‘rock and soul’. I mean, I love Gladys, Aretha and Etta, but nothing compares to the power of a strong woman belting it out over a slamming band.” Mother’s Finest’s bottom-driven grooves and Kennedy’s dynamic vocals were key ingredients in fueling Barbara’s ambition to front a hard-driving band.

Barbara started out on the piano at an early age, but secretly yearned to be a singer. “I was really quite good on the piano, and was regularly called upon to play for all our school musicals. It always used to hurt when the pretty girls with mediocre voices got picked for the lead singing roles. I wanted to sing so bad, but the musical directors always convinced me to play the piano instead.” It wasn’t until she attended Berklee College of Music and grew bored with the jazz snobs that she stepped out front to sing. “There I was in Boston, surrounded by all these amazingly talented people bound for greatness, (Aimee Mann, Steve Vai, Winton Marsalis), when I realized I wasn’t being true to myself. I was a singer, not a jazz pianist. Singing gave me a sense of musical freedom I had never felt before.” This newfound sense of freedom would be all it would take for Barbara to move on. She packed up all her hopes and dreams in her ‘76 red Chevy Monza and went off to see what the future had in store for her on the west coast.

Higgins and Malteze met up in Los Angeles in the early ‘90’s. Kevin had been busy cutting his teeth in the area coffeehouses. “It was a real art trying to time your lyrics around the drone of a bean grinder.” Meanwhile, Barbara was working the blues clubs after walking away from her heavy metal record deal. Barbara remembers, “I had to go up against the male-dominated grain of hard rock bands in L.A., getting no support from my label. It was no surprise to me that the ‘big hair, pretty-boy band’ thing imploded back then. They were a dime-a-dozen anyways. Click here to visit Malteze website Click here to visit Malteze website Unfortunately, not much attention was given to us gals who were doing it much better, for half the money and with half the makeup and hairspray.” Possessed with a powerful voice and an abundance of soul, the blues were a natural fit for Malteze. “You would’ve thought that by this point in my career I’d be done paying my dues, but one day I woke up and realized I’d really only been paying off the interest charges.” It was her signature voice and the unassuming personality behind it that struck Kevin immediately. “We had some mutual friends who invited me to come hear Barbara sing one night. She and I chatted briefly before she went on, and, suffice it to say, she got my interest.

I about fell out of chair when she started singing.” Some weeks later, Barbara showed up for one of Kevin’s performances. “I was returning the favor. He had showed up for my gig, so I went to hear him play at a local coffeehouse, not knowing what to expect. He played one song after another and each one was brilliant. I was very impressed.”

The combination of country-influenced Southern rock, introspective songwriter material, the energy of hard rock and soulful blues seemed a bit of a stretch to pitch to the L.A. scene in the early ‘90’s, so the two moved back to Higgins’ home state of Texas, where they hoped those influences might be more readily appreciated.

It didn’t take long for Higgins and Malteze to collaborate, honing an old sound into something new. From this, the Cosmic Dust Devils were realized. “We started calling it ‘Farm-to-Market Rock ‘n’ Roll’ because we started out on the Texas Hill Country backroads and now we’re taking it to ‘market,” says Malteze with a grin.

Underneath it all, there is a rebellious spirit to the music. There are songs about incarceration and the myth of equal representation under the law, (“In Jail”); corporate downsizing, outsourcing and the effect it has had on middle-class America, (“Company Time”) and healing the wounds of a country divided by politics, “Friends”). “Tired” touches on the darkness and denial of addiction while “Gathering Dust” offers a glimpse into the defiant spirit that keeps Kevin and Barbara on the road and giving chase to the elusive dream of musical freedom.

Their new CD,“Gathering Dust”, (recorded between Austin and Nashville), is a brilliant return to melody-driven, lyrically inspiring Southern rock with a definite cutting edge. “There wasn’t a conscious effort attempt to replicate that sound, but we were able to authenticate it by bringing a legend like Barry Beckett on board from the Muscle Shoals Swamper scene,” remarks Higgins. “So, we ain’t just whistlin’ Dixie.”

But, why take the hard road instead of just trying to “fit in” with what’s perceived as popular? “I’d be lying to you if I didn’t admit that sometimes we second-guess ourselves for the direction we’ve chosen. It’s a lonely stretch of road when you get off the main highway. But, there is a very real, cross-generational audience out there who, despite their varying socio-economic status, is pretty fed up with being spoon-fed popular music,” Higgins maintains. “We know…we’ve seen them, we’ve met them, they come to our shows and tell us how much this music means to them,” Malteze adds.

Wouldn’t it be easier just to “play it safe?”
"This flavor-of-the-month pop music comes and goes. What Tompall Glaser did in Nashville in the early ‘70’s with Waylon…and what Willie did here in Texas is something I grew up acknowledging as gospel. A wise old man once told me, ‘Play it straight from the heart. If you don’t stand for something, it will all fall apart," Higgins reflects.

It is this conviction of spirit that has enabled the Cosmic Dust Devils to persevere. As they continue to thrive on the energy and support of the good people of Texas, it has become apparent that “no fence can hold ‘em.” So, get ready America…there’s a storm brewin’ down south. These Cosmic Dust Devils pack quite a wallop with a live show that definitely suits their name. Some might say it’s like getting caught up in a sonic whirlwind and taken to a higher place.

…a place where music takes flight, but never strays too far from home.

Enjoy the ride.