Under The Fretboard: Quaker City Night Hawks
This is the fourth installment of Under the Fretboard, an exploration of lesser-known artists in the blues rock landscape. Earlier this year, we highlighted a few modern standouts: the genre-blending energy of The Blue Stones, the dusty, barroom swagger of 7Horse, and the classic rock, soul, pop, and Americana fusion of Jocelyn & Chris (now simply Jocelyn and Chris, following Jocelyn’s recent marriage). We now head south to explore a band that’s been thrilling audiences with greasy, psychedelic Texas rock and electrifying live performances for 15 years.
Quaker City Night Hawks – Texas Grease and Cosmic Soul
Singer-guitarists Sam Anderson and David Matsler first crossed paths in 2003 while playing open-mic nights around Lubbock and Fort Worth, quickly bonding over science fiction and their shared love of ’70s rock from Pink Floyd to ZZ Top. They stayed in touch as life took them in different directions until 2007, when they found themselves back on the Fort Worth gig scene. In 2009, along with drummer Matt Mabe and bassist Pat Adams, they formed Quaker City Night Hawks, a name that perfectly captures the spirit of their sound and vision.
The name comes from Mark Twain’s 1867 travel book The Innocents Abroad, or The New Pilgrim’s Progress, in which “The Night Hawks” refers to a group of travelers aboard a ship called Quaker City who gathered for late-night sessions of drinking, smoking, and cards. The band’s music feels like the ideal soundtrack for those vice-laden nights, and that energy carried effortlessly into their live shows. Anderson, the son of a minister who grew up singing in church, and Matsler, a fingerpicker raised on James Taylor and Paul Simon, found a natural balance between Sunday salvation and Saturday night sin. What began as a Fort Worth bar band soon became a regional powerhouse. Their sound caught the attention of filmmakers, earning song placements in Sons of Anarchy, Riverdale, Spenser Confidential, Preacher, and more recently, Reacher and Tulsa King.
The Quaker City Night Hawks’ recording journey began in 2011 with their self-released debut album, ¡Torquila Torquila! The record blends classic ’70s blues-soaked rock ’n’ roll with Texas-style southern grit and a touch of rockabilly. It’s raw and fun on tracks like “Like Old Cain,” “Hounds of Hell,” and the fan favorite “Bible Black Lincoln,” while darker, haunting moments surface in “Cold Blues” and “Some of Adam’s Blues.” The latter two, along with “Ain’t No Kid,” were later featured in season five of Sons of Anarchy, marking the start of the band’s long-running small-screen presence.
The following year, they released a six-track live EP, Live at Magnolia Motor Lounge, on Magnolia Records. It features concert versions of setlist staples like “Like Old Cain,” “The Last Ride of Miguel the Scared,” and “Fox in the Hen House.” It served as a perfect bridge to their next studio album, helping the band build an audience beyond Texas thanks to strong television exposure.
In 2013, Honcho arrived, also on Magnolia Records. While it may not be as raw and gritty as its predecessor, it more than compensates with groove and swagger. “Fox in the Hen House,” “Crack at the Bottle,” “Greasy Night,” and “Lavanderia” are upbeat toe-tappers. Streaming favorites “Rattlesnake Boogie” and “Stable Hand” keep hips moving, while “Witch Kitchen” and the fuzz-laden “Train Rolled Home” deliver darker, classic rock tones. If you’re cooking a pot of Texas red chili with pitchers of margaritas on the table, this is your soundtrack.
Three years later, 2016’s El Astronauta marked a new chapter as their first release on Nashville’s Lightning Rod Records. The album embraced their sci-fi leanings, from its cover art to its sound, earning the label’s description of “spacey, southern stomp.” In promotional material, Anderson described the band as “sci-fi-obsessed ZZ Top enthusiasts,” and the record lives up to that claim. El Astronauta might have arrived sooner if not for the band’s decision to road-test songs live before recording them, refining the final versions based on audience reactions. That spirit shines through in the opener “Good Evening,” which greets listeners with “Good evening from Fort Worth, Texas.” The follow-up, “Liberty Bell,” named after an early 1960s NASA mission, became a streaming favorite. Alongside “Mockingbird,” the album bursts with greasy southern rock fervor. Standout tracks “Beat the Machine,” “Duendes,” and “Sons & Daughters” are among the band’s most highly regarded. “Beat the Machine” appeared in Reacher, while “Duendes” found placements in Tulsa King, Midnight, Texas, and Preacher. “Good Evening” was featured in Riverdale. In September 2016, the band also dropped the single “Queso Blanco,” a humorous Tex-Mex foodie tune.
Their fourth studio album, QCNH, arrived in 2019 and brought wider recognition beyond television, though the exposure certainly helped. The record reached the Top 40 on Billboard’s Independent Albums chart. Tracks like “Better in the Morning,” “Colorado,” “Pay to Play,” and the semi-psychedelic “Elijah Ramsey” are smooth, sun-drenched jams. Anderson and Matsler dip into funky ’70s R&B on “Tired of You Leaving” and “Suit in the Back,” the latter amassing more than 12 million Spotify streams. “Hunter’s Moon” adds a dose of classic hard rock, echoing Black Sabbath and Deep Purple while reimagining “Fox in the Hen House” with added punch. Critics praised the album for its stylistic range. Notably, “Fox in the Hen House” had been released a year earlier on an EP alongside “Queso Blanco.”
After QCNH, the band entered a relatively quiet period before reemerging in August 2024 with a new single and tour announcement. When asked about the hiatus in a Fort Worth radio interview, Anderson explained:
“We’d been hitting it hard for about seven, eight years in a row there, the 15 years that we’ve been around. So, we kind of took a step back. We were fresh out of a record contract, and we wanted to rebuild a team around us with close friends and people that we know. We took that time to reset everything and figure out [how] to take another whack at everything.”
— KXT.org, August 29, 2024
With the rebuild complete, Anderson and Matsler are now joined by bassist Max Smith and drummer Jordan Richardson. A new album, due in 2026, promises to be grounded and confident, yet refreshingly different. It will still groove, that thick, swampy, unapologetically human groove that fans have come to expect, and one that may soon find its way into more TV soundtracks.
The Quaker City Night Hawks aren’t just keeping blues rock alive. They’re redefining what it means to be a Texas blues rock band in the 21st century: wild, weird, and wonderfully unrepentant.