Alan Whitehead and The Western Playboys serenade crowds across the Highland Lakes with their Texas tunes inspired by country music legends such as Waylon Jennings and Merle Haggard.
“It’s awesome to take something inanimate like a guitar and make something come out of it,” said Whitehead, lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist. “Writing songs is as fun as singing and performing them.”
The group’s unique yet familiar sound is exactly why it was voted Favorite Band by The Picayune Magazine readers and KBEY 103.9 FM Radio Picayune listeners in the 2024 Locals Love Us contest.
“We won two years ago,” Whitehead said. “It’s really an honor to win. To win it twice is even cooler.”
Whitehead got his start in music at about 20 years old.
“Everybody in my family, like my dad and my uncles, played,” he said. “I always thought it was cool, but I never could learn. My buddy came over one day and started playing his guitar. That’s when I said, ‘Alright, I guess I have to learn now.’”
The singer decided to form The Western Playboys after being invited on stage during a performance by Eddie Shell & The Not Guilties.
“I went to one of Eddie Shell’s Fourth of July picnics, and he told me to go up and play some songs with (his band),” Whitehead said. “I got the itch after that to put my own band together.”
The band’s name is an homage to Whitehead’s grandfather, who played around Austin in the 1950s.
“My grandad had a band in the ’50s that was pretty hot in Austin at the time called The Western Playboys,” Whitehead said. “We stole his name.”
Group members include Whitehead’s dad, Eddie, drummer Steven Maywald, and guitarist Derek Groves.
“I read something one time that said, ‘Three hours of playing with the wrong musicians can feel like three years, but the right ones can feel like three minutes,” Whitehead said. “That’s 100 percent true.”
Music is often an escape for the singer.
“When you’re locked in and everyone else is locked in and it sounds tight, it’s complete freedom,” he said. “You just don’t think about anything else but the moment. It’s really freeing.”