Six Gun Sally

About Six Gun Sally

Six Gun Sally emerged from the Texas alt-country scene in the late 1990s, though calling them alt-country feels like only part of the story. The band formed in Austin when songwriter Jake Meridian and steel guitarist Lauren Cross started playing together at a dive bar residency that paid in drink tickets and whatever cash landed in the tip jar. They added a rhythm section within a few months and spent the better part of two years playing to sparse crowds who were mostly there for the cheap beer.

Their first album, "Dust and Devotion," came out in 2001 on a small regional label. It got some attention from Texas radio stations that actually played local bands, but the real breakthrough came when "Magdalene" started showing up on college stations across the Southwest. The song had this unhurried momentum, Cross's steel work weaving through Meridian's talk-sung verses about a woman leaving town with nothing but a Bible and a pistol. It wasn't a hit in any commercial sense, but it became the kind of song other musicians noticed.

The follow-up, "Dry County Psalms," leaned harder into the band's tendency toward minor keys and biblical imagery filtered through roadhouse grit. Critics who paid attention to this sort of thing started making Nick Cave comparisons, which probably helped and hurt in equal measure. The album sold modestly, but songs like "Three Nails" and "Salvation's Just a Word" became setlist staples that fans actually wanted to hear every show.

By the time "Blood Harmonies" arrived in 2007, the band had gone through a couple rhythm section changes and picked up keyboard player Sam Deletha, who'd previously worked as a session musician in Nashville. The sound got lusher, more layered, though Meridian's songwriting stayed focused on the same dusty existential territory. "The Rope" got used in a cable TV show, which brought in some new listeners who didn't know what to make of a band that sounded equally influenced by Townes Van Zandt and The Gun Club.

They've kept at it in the years since, though the pace slowed down. "Borrowed Light" came out in 2014 after a longer gap than usual, and while it had moments of real intensity, particularly on "Copper Wire" and "Last Light in Abilene," it felt like a band that had settled into what they were. Not a bad thing, necessarily.

These days Six Gun Sally tours occasionally, mostly regional runs and the odd festival slot where they're billed as Americana or roots rock or whatever seems closest. Meridian still writes songs. Cross still makes that steel guitar sound like weather moving across empty land. They put out an EP in 2021 that suggested they still have something to say, even if fewer people are listening than probably should be.

Their shows attract a crowd that actually knows the words. It's the kind of set where people lean in close, nursing their drinks, and the room goes quiet during the verses. High energy comes from conviction, not spectacle.

Known for Six Gun Sally, Whiskey Won't Wash You Away, Honky Tonk Hell, Broken Down on Route 9, Neon and Dust

See Six Gun Sally Live