Musical legacies fuse into ‘Throwback’ rhythms

Wen Moore and Raul Valdez Jr. grew up a few houses away from one another in Laguna Vista. As kids they listened to their father and grandfather serenade them with the tunes of two different cultures.

For Moore, the country tunes of the Old Opry station accompanied his father to Texas from the radio waves of his native island of Guanaja, part of Honduras.

“He took the dial off the radio when we were kids so we could only listen to country,” Moore remembered.

For Valdez, visits to Pilo’s Café in Laredo, once owned by his great-great-grandfather, gave him an education in the Mexican music his grandfather, a man perpetually outfitted with a thin tie, khaki pants, and manicured curls, played with his band.

“Now I go back there and I see these men who were in a band with my grandfather,” Valdez said of the café, “and they all sit out there and still play when they get off of work and everything. It’s really cool, you know? They’ll tell me, ‘this is a song that your grandfather used when he was serenading your grandmother.’ People just don’t do stuff like that anymore.”

As a little boy Valdez used to accompany his grandfather on the bongos. Both Moore and Valdez grew up idolizing their musical relatives.

“I picked up the guitar to be like my Dad,” Moore said. “When he starts to sing people stop and listen. I know it sounds cheesy, but when he sings he really sounds like an angel.”

Moore, a rhythm guitarist, and Valdez, a bassist and vocalist, joined forces two years ago with Craig Greenwood on lead guitar, Ross Moore, Wen’s cousin, on drums.

Josh Kay plays additional percussion to form The Throwbacks, a fusion band named in reverence to the classic tunes that have guided each of their musical tastes.

“When people see us up there on stage they don’t know what to expect. You’ve got me looking like a low rider up there,” Valdez said, referring to his tattoos of rosaries, a koi fish, and his last name, among others, as well as his long beard and samurai-style bun.

“Then you’ve got these guys in tie-dye,” Valdez said, referring to Kay, who owns the Psychadeli sandwich shop on South Padre Island and Greenwood, who works there.

“Then there’s this coach, you know,” he said of Ross Moore who coaches varsity football for Weslaco High School.

The Throwbacks say they capitalize on their divergent musical styles by fusing them to create a unique sound. Their tastes range from metal to folk, country to grunge.

As the house band Saturday nights at Last Call on South Padre Island they frequently shift from playing the soulful reggae of Bob Marley to the dark country of Johnny Cash.

“Our audience is also really of all ages,” Wen Moore, a 29-year-old student at the University of Texas Brownsville and Texas Southmost College said. “They go from 20s to middle age.”

The two describe Last Call as a local hangout on the island. Many of those who come in are finishing their shifts as waiters or bartenders at the surrounding restaurants and venues.

Although The Throwbacks plan to record a CD of only original music, they say they enjoy playing to the tastes of whoever walks through the door that night.

“We play a lot of covers. We can play about anything,” Valdez said. “Sometimes it takes people a while to recognize the song they requested because we always do it in our own Throwback style.”

The Throwbacks

When: 10 p.m. to 2 a.m., today

Where: Last Call on Padre Boulevard, South Padre Island