Dave Gonzalez lights into lead guitar with the fierce determination of a rocker.
A few moments later, he slips into the background as Mike Barfield, his Stone River Boys band mate, lays down stinging harmonica. You still can hear Gary Newcomb harmonizing on pedal steel.
The sound is earthy and bluesy, with country twang.
"Mike likes to call it 'country funk,' " Gonzalez said recently as the band prepared for a Southwest tour that will bring it to The Hut on Friday. "It's a unique, refreshing sound that's very similar to the Hacienda Brothers, because it's country-Western and soul."
For Gonzalez - the creative force behind the Paladins, a 1990s rockabilly outfit - the Stone River Boys are much more than the latest chapter in his storied music career. The band is a chance to heal from the devastating loss of his Hacienda Brothers partner, Chris Gaffney, who died of liver cancer in 2008. Gaffney was 57.
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"Sometimes I really think Gaff is still watching over me," he explained in a phone call from a tour stop in Redding, Calif. "He was really a big brother to me and mentored me."
In fact, it was Gaffney who brought Gonzalez and Barfield together in Austin, Texas. The Stone River Boys emerged from a series of fundraising concerts featuring the pair with a veritable who's who of Texas Americana-roots music.
Those concerts eventually led to a tribute album, "The Man of Somebody's Dreams," spearheaded by Dave Alvin and featuring Joe Ely, James McMurtry, Peter Case, Robbie Fulks, Jim Lauderdale, John Doe and others.
On the road with Barfield, Gonzalez fell into a rhythm similar to the one he had shared with Gaffney. In addition to Hacienda Brothers songs and material from the Paladins, the band pulled from Barfield's extensive crossbreed of Texas funk, country and blues. Barfield, renowned in Texas music circles as the Tyrant of Texas Funk, had penned a few new tunes and on a stop in Nebraska, the pair slipped into a studio and laid down a few tracks.
"Mike and I took off on that very first tour, and he had some really good tunes ready to go, but he hadn't recorded a record in a couple of years," Gonzalez said. "It seemed like every time we went on tour, we kept piecing it together. And pretty soon, we just stacked it up to the point we had 12, 16 tunes."
In May, the band released its indie debut, "Love on the Dial," which was two years in the making.
"We're like a brand-new band now," said Gonzalez, who recently moved from California to Austin. "We are trying in a sense to start all over again."
Tucson is like a homecoming for Gonzalez. It was a regular tour stop throughout his years with Gaffney, who had lived here as a child. And their manager was longtime Tucson music impresario Jeb Schoonover, who also works with the Stone River Boys.
Although he is starting over with the new band, Gonzalez said that in many ways, he feels as though Gaffney were alongside him for the journey. "I feel like he's still around. He's blessed me in getting through all this," he said. "Each day is precious. If you get the chance to do what you want to do, you have to take a chance on it."
If you go
• What: The Stone River Boys in concert.
• Featuring: The Mike Eldred Trio and the Preservation featuring Mario Matteoli.
• When: 8 p.m. Friday.
• Where: The Hut, 305 N. Fourth Ave.
• Cost: $8 at the door.
