Around Cowtown: Lindsay Hightower at Panther Island Brewing

Back in 2011, I met Jacob Martinez when his band, My Wooden Leg, played a show at the Capitol Bar.

While that band has passed over the rainbow bridge, I’ve seen Martinez around in various projects over the last few years. last Sunday, I saw he was playing with Lindsay Hightower at Panther Island Brewing so I thought I better see what he’s up to.

Would it be country? Romanian punk? Who knows with this guy?

When I got to the brewery, the band was set up among the big shiny stainless steel tanks. A kickball team was having its midseason party, and a good-size crowd was gathered around, drinking beer and listening to music and watching a game on the huge projection screen.

Martinez was playing an upright bass and Hightower was belting out a soul tune. The band — vocalist/guitarist Hightower, bassist/vocalist Martinez, guitarist Doug Baxter and keyboardist Steve Hammond (keyboard) — usually performs with a drummer (Brandon Amos) but a good deal of the stage was taken up with beer-making equipment, so this was the condensed version.

“Jacob and I have played together for like 10 years,” Hightower told me after the show, “and we were in a different band called Mad Hatter Moon.

“There’s a campiness to it. I also saw it as an art project in general,” she said. “I like movies; I like film. I want to put videos to it. Make an art project.”

Sunday’s show was less involved, however. What we got was a solid set of good music. There was a little rock, and a lot of soul to the thing. They did a few covers like Eddie Floyd’s Good Love, Bad Love and The Coasters’ Down in Mexico.

They did a cover of Duffy’s Mercy with instrumentals that sounded a bit more Motown than the original. Hightower has a soulful voice and a charming stage presence. The band is tight and emotive, even sans drummer. I need to see these guys with a full band.

Hightower is working on a new CD, which will be a departure from previous releases, she said.

“I’m starting to write for this next one; it’s going to be different.” Hightower said, “I feel like I’m a different person from whenever I wrote the first one. I’m not so sad, I’m in a different place.”

This is a band you don’t want to miss.

While Panther Island Brewing is a working brewery, not a bar, it does this kind of show every week on Friday nights and Sunday afternoons. Check out the Facebook page for more details.

This story was originally published October 22, 2015 at 7:16 AM with the headline "Around Cowtown: Lindsay Hightower at Panther Island Brewing."