The Heat is on

While that could describe just about any reverend in Texas, we're talking specifically about The Reverend Horton Heat, a rockabilly band out of Dallas which will be playing this Friday night at Club Congress with Mike Ness, the former frontman of Social Distortion.

The Reverend Horton Heat plays full-throttled, energized rockabilly - music that's not only fun, but serious about how fun it is.

"I think our sound is a unique kinda little thing that's off to the side. It's like a little contraption that just won't quit running. We play a lot of fast, loud stuff," said Jim Heath, otherwise known as The Reverend Horton Heat, during a telephone interview from his home in Dallas.

As a band, The Reverend Horton Heat has been running so long, it seemed a little difficult for Heath to pinpoint exact dates.

"Reverend Horton Heat was a solo thing for a while, and it just kinda turned into a band," Heath said. "I got (bassist) Jimbo in the band about 10 and a half years ago, and Jimbo was real gung-ho... I guess Jimbo getting in the band was (what really got us going.)"

The Heat has had several drummers, with Scott currently keeping the beat.

But The Reverend Horton Heat hasn't always been an ensemble. While the name refers to the band, it also refers to the man.

Heath was living in a warehouse district in East Dallas, just playing in bands and running sound for shows.

"It was nothing but just pawn shops and industrial places," Heath said. "(Then) this guy put in an art gallery and started having bands.

"This guy (who started the art gallery), he started calling me 'Horton'," Heath said. "(He) had a nickname for everybody...he told me he wanted me to play a gig up there because he heard me hanging around singing Johnny Cash songs and little rockabilly things that I'd written. So I showed up at this gig and he said, 'You should be Reverend Horton Heat.' . I thought it was ridiculous. But he had already listed it in the papers and made fliers and stuff, and the next thing I know there's fifty people there who really liked my songs and were calling me 'Reverend.'

"But what's really funny is now," Heath said through laughter. "He's not a bartender or a bar owner anymore. Now, he's a born again Christian and he's a preacher. So he's the reverend."

But The Reverend Horton Heat is still the reverend of rock. He doesn't do weddings or funerals or any of the typical things a Reverend usually does.

Instead, the band concern themselves with weddings of different kinds of rock genres, so to speak. They've played shows with nearly every end of the rock'n'roll spectrum, from White Zombie to Wayne Newton, and even a few sets on the "Drew Carey Show."

Now, The Heat are touring to promote Holy Roller, a collection of 24 tracks that compose a kind of "Best-Of The Reverend Horton Heat," released by Sub Pop, where the Heat started out before being signed to Interscope, who then dropped them after three releases.

"The whole thing was (Sub Pop's) idea," Heath said. "They sent me a set list and I think there might have been one change we made - we didn't really change that much."

Friday night's show at Club Congress, 311 E. Congress St., pairs up The Reverend Horton Heat with Mike Ness, the former lead singer of Social Distortion.

Ness has been touring in support of his new album Cheating at Solitaire. This isn't the first time Ness and The Reverend Horton Heat have crossed paths.

"We toured with Social D. a long time ago," Heath said. "Then we were going to be his band for his tour he's doing now. We just had a few rehearsals and worked up a set, played three different shows with him and it was really fun - those are some great songs. But we couldn't keep going... it just wasn't our time to be on the road at all."

But Heath wasn't too sure whether any of those songs would show up Friday night.

"I don't know if we'll jam or anything. I'm not too big on the jamming thing lately, I don't know why. But we'll probably get Mike up there, do something."

The show also includes Deke Dickerson and the Ecco-Fonics, Custom Made Scare, and Thunderosa, and will take up both the indoor and outdoor stages at Hotel Congress.