Published in The Islander Magazine January 2015
Mark Moss leads The 4 Barrel Ramblers
Mark Moss talks about his first encounters with rock & roll music with an enthusiasm equal to, if not greater than, Pete Townshend’s trademark “windmill” guitar playing or a David Lee Roth amplifier leap. He loves it. So it makes perfect sense, decades after those encounters, that Moss is lead singer and guitar player in the local rockabilly-flavored band, The 4 Barrel Ramblers and manages radio station KACC 89.7 FM, known as “The Gulf Coast Rocker” based out of Alvin Community College. Growing up in the Clear Lake Area, Moss’s gravitation to rock & roll music began early in life, frequently by way of the influence of his 2 older sisters (and their boyfriends). Although he didn’t always aspire to run a radio station, he knew from the opening riffs heard on “Led Zeppelin II” that his life, no matter what he did for a living, would be filled with music.
“I don’t know how, I don’t know where, that album came from – I think my sister’s boyfriend left it at our house. There’s no way my parents would have bought it for me. When I put that record on I thought, ‘I shouldn’t be listening to this.’” Of course, in his adolescent rebellion, Moss loved it for it’s dangerous quality and heavy guitar riffs.
“Heartbreaker might have been one of the first rock & roll riffs I learned. I played the hell out of that record. Now, if I hear anything off that album and it doesn’t have scratches on it - it doesn’t feel pure to me, it feels too clean!” laughs Moss.
As station manager and creator of KACC’s playlist, Moss gets to relive putting on that album (less the scratches) as well as many of the records that have moved him in life. Among those, Peter Frampton’s iconic double live album released in 1976, “Frampton Comes Alive!” “When “Frampton Comes Alive!” came out - that was really the catalyst that made me think, ‘I want to play music’. I said, ‘I want do what that guy does! I want long blonde hair, girls screaming at me! I want to have a Les Paul guitar cranked up. I just want to play rock & roll!’”
Despite his rock & roll wishes, one of his first regular gigs as a working musician came when he was about 15 years of age, playing at the Stardust in Clear Lake Shores (between Houston and Galveston). The free beer and $5 dollar paycheck (for the band to split) at the end of the night was worth the trade-off to play country music. “We hated country music but we played it because we were making 5 bucks and free beer vs playing in the garage for nothing!”
Today, Moss is a fan of classic country like Hank Williams and Johnny Cash and their influence can be heard in the 4 Barrel Ramblers’ original music. “We’re kind of rockabilly… really we’re a beer band. We hate to use the term Texas Music... We’re not Red Dirt Country. We’re kind of a beer-drinking variety band, if you will. You might hear a little country, a little blues, some rockabilly. Rock & roll at its roots… all mashed together.”
The mashing is happening regularly at bars and restaurants around the Houston and Clear Lake area and in the recording studio. The 4 Barrel Ramblers are working on their CD called "Songs in the Key of Drunk” and expect to release it sometime in the coming year. Though you won’t hear it on KACC. Mark Moss has firm reservations about playing his own band’s material on the station - he won’t. “It’s simply a conflict of interest,” he says.
When it comes to other local bands, however, Moss is a staunch supporter and programs regionally produced music nearly every hour on KACC. Countless Galveston/Houston area singers, songwriters and bands have enjoyed the thrill of hearing their music broadcast on radio thanks to the programming choices of Moss.
“I believe in promoting locally. I believe in community service and local music is a community service! There just isn’t enough local music on Houston radio. And it’s not just the music. If a band is doing a benefit to help someone in the community, I’ll promote that event.”
Although Moss was once an on-air DJ on KLOL in Houston and hosted the “Outlaw Radio Show” from 1988-1991, he admits to finding his forte behind the scenes in radio and has been with KACC for 23 years, where he also teaches communications. Thankfully for his 4 Barrel Rambler band-mates, Shane Gormley (drums) and Robert Renton (bass), Moss is comfortable out front singing and playing the guitar and does so with the same rock & roll enthusiasm he had when he was a kid listening to Led Zeppelin or Peter Frampton.
The 4 Barrel Ramblers will be doing their brand of rockabilly-flavored original music combined with covers by some of their favorite artists like the Stray Cats, Elvis, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Eric Clapton at the 2015 Houston Livestock and Rodeo, among other choice venues. See their website www.4BarrelRamblers.com for more dates and information about the band.
