Band of Heathens' multi-instrumentalist Colin Brooks said his band was surprised it was nominated for Best Duo or Group for the Americana Honors & Awards, which will be announced in September.
"We were nominated last year for Best Emerging Artist but didn't win," Brooks said during a telephone interview from his home in Austin, Texas.
"It was a real honor to be nominated. And to be nominated again is another honor. And we've got to take it when it comes."
Band of Heathens — Brooks, fellow multi-instrumentalists Ed Jurdi and Gordy Quist, bassist Seth Whitney and drummer John Chipman — got together as a fluke, Brooks said.
"We all had our individual residencies at a club, and we have sat in with each other from time to time," he said. "But there was a moment when somebody had a bright idea to combine all of us in one night, and it had a smell to it that made us look around and say, 'Why didn't we think of this?' "
The group recorded "Live from Momos," its official debut, in 2006.
"We did it to document what was happening, and it just sort of snowballed," said Brooks. "We loved it. So we said, 'Let's keep doing it.' "
Brooks took awhile to discover music, although his family listened to music ever since he could remember.
"My dad was a musician, but he was a bit of a mythical figure to me," Brooks said. "He died when I was 2 years old. But I have a brief and vague memory of me sitting on his lap playing his guitar, which I still have.
"But I didn't hear a lot of different kinds of music growing up. We were a very religious family. So there was a lot of church music,"
Brooks' self-proclaimed "stunted musical upbringing" helped him appreciate music when he began discovering other music on his own.
"I remember hearing Johnny Cash's 'Folsom Prison Blues' and being knocked out by that guitar riff," he said. "When I learned to play that, I was a pig in (mud). Then, as I made my own way in the world, I kept running across music the knocked me out — like Little Feat. I couldn't believe somebody was doing those kinds of grooves. It just got me going and revved my engine."
The Band of Heathens released its fifth CD, "One Foot in the Ether," in September. The disc landed at No. 1 on the Americana Play charts in March.
"A lot of the songs were already written," Brooks said. "Some of the songs, we have been playing live, but we also kicked around some other developing songs and worked on them."
The tune "Golden Calf" was done in one take, said Brooks.
"We cut it numerous times after the initial take but kept going back to that one," he said. "We can't mess with perfect imperfection."
If you go...
What: Band of Heathens, The Velvetones
Where: The State Room, 638 S. State
When: July 28, 8 p.m.
How much: $12-$15
Phone: 800-501-2885
e-mail: scott@desnews.com