The music business is tough. It is likely one of the toughest businesses around. It truly is a dream come true type of endeavor where reality often falls short of the dreams. However, all bands dream and sometimes those dreams come true. For Mark McCoy, Joseph Deeb, Shane Vannerson, Micky Braun, and Gary Braun the toughness of the music business is a bit tougher. On the one hand, Micky and Gary’s family ties to Willy and Cody Braun of Reckless Kelly are a positive. After all being the brothers of one of the most successful recording and touring bands in Texas cannot be a bad thing: right?

The reality can be different. There are always the inevitable and unfair comparisons to Reckless Kelly by music media. There is also the market factor of the terrestrial radio world, where stations might dismiss the younger Brauns for Reckless Kelly as enough of an Idaho trademark on Texas music. The Braun’s themselves are not competitive with each other however. Micky is often working his brother’s merchandise table if the Motorcars are not gigging that night. The are always collaborating and writing songs together, and Cody Braun with David Abeyta (also of Reckless Kelly) produced The Motorcars newest CD, Careless. They are family and no amount of comparisons by music industry and media saps will change that. The first single from Careless, "Carolina Morning," failed to make a significant impact on the Texas Music Chart. There really was no reason for that, and it is contradictory to the sales data of the record itself.

Careless continues to be one of the top sellers at Lonestar Music. So, people are buying the record but terrestrial radio stations are not playing it? Says more about radio stations than the record, and that consumers are smarter than radio music directors are. Careless did reach number one for the “Roots Rock” category at the Roots Music Report.

The Roots Report tabulates all songs played from a record and not singles alone. They also accept play reports from internet-only based radio stations.

Careless is a great record regardless of any specific chart location of one of the released singles and comparisons to Reckless Kelly in the negative are from ignorant critics. Real Braun fans are the most rabid fans of any in the Texas music scene and they love both the Braun brother’s bands with equal enthusiasm. The bands are in reality very different. Reckless has the trademark “hick rock” sound with Cody Braun’s fiddle and mandolin. The Motorcars are a pure western rock band with edge via Micky’s vocals on top of Gary and Joseph’s electric licks.

Micky and the Motorcars are for real and deserve all the respect their real fans show and more. Their live performances are getting better and better and they are one of the hardest working bands in Texas. Micky’s goals are larger than just Texas and Oklahoma and God bless him for that. He and his brothers (all of them) can take the Texas music scene across the west with a sound that can musically connect Texas with the entire Western and Rocky Mountain States. Idaho plates remain on The Motorcar’s tour van as a reminder that they are a wild western and Rocky Mountain rock band and that is so cool.

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