Mike and the Moonpies Change Their Name to “Silverada”

Mike and The Moonpies are changing their name. After 16 years of recording and performing under that moniker, singer Mike Harmeier and his Texas five-piece are changing their name to “Silverada.”

Harmeier announced the revamp during an intimate show moderated by Rolling rock at Key West's Mile 0 festival, a prestigious gathering for artists and fans of red dirt, country and Americana. On Friday night, the group will publicly retire the Moonpies moniker during the main stage show, ending their set and leaving the stage as Silverada. For all five members, change has been a long time coming.

After seeing the red dirt and Americana scene explode in recent years, with artists like the Turnpike Troubadours, Zach Bryan and Flatland Cavalry garnering national attention, the Moonpies got their name — it started as a joke when Harmeier used to play adaptations – hindered their progress.

“We've been talking about a name change for many, many years,” says Harmeier Rolling rock. “The climate for the music we make is very good at the moment. This scene that's happening now is a mainstream country scene. When we started, it wasn't really like that, and here we are – old hat now. It's like we've climbed to the top of a ladder and there's no escape hatch up there. How do we get to that next level? It seems to me that we need to refresh the idea of ​​what we do to new listeners.”

Silverada has a plan to win over skeptics or fans who can't let go of the Moonpies name. They are releasing a new album, titled Silverada, on June 28. The midnight/ET release means the record will drop right as Silverada walk on stage to headline the first night of the Jackalope Jamboree in Pendleton, Oregon, the night before. The first single from the album is called “Wallflower” and will be released on February 2nd.

For an album release party, the band will headline Nashville's Ryman Auditorium for the first time on July 5, with Uncle Lucius opening. (tickets are tickets?skin=ryman” data-type=”link” data-id=”https://www.axs.com/events/528195/silverada-formerly-mike-and-the-moonpies-tickets?skin=ryman” target=”_blank”>on sale now.) After doing their best as an opening act to steal the show from Reckless Kelly and Jason Boland and the Stragglers at a sold-out Ryman last September, completing a bill at Mother Church is a natural next step .

“It's all guns firing at once,” says Harmeier. “But I give the venues a good shake, too. If they want to say “Ex-Mike and the Moonpies” on a poster, I'm not trying to ruin it for them. A lot of it is coming out of the gates strong, to show that we're all into it, and hopefully our fan base will be too.”

According to Chase Harmeier – Mike's wife and the band's manager – the idea of ​​a name change dates back to the 2012 LP. The hard way. Mike Harmeier says that when 2019 Cheap silver & solid country gold — the album the group recorded with an arrangement at Abbey Road Studios in London — was released, he knew a rebrand was inevitable. This album ended up playing a major role in leading the band to the new name.

“When Cheap silver came out, we were moving in a way that didn't fit people's perception of us,” says Harmeier. “We've reached a point where we're at the right time and we've got a record in the box that's a departure for us — a record with a little more freedom than we've ever done before.”

Silverada is Harmeier, drummer Taylor Englert, guitarist Catlin Rutherford, bassist Omar Oyoque and steel guitarist Zachary Moulton. The band's entire identity is practically sealed in the new name.

“We've been through a lot, and it's hard to get five adults to agree on anything,” says Harmeier. “We really wanted something that was a word. When we were writing Cheap silver, that was our identity. We were drinking silver tequila. Then we wrote the last Moonpies record, One to Grow On, which is somewhat based on a Chevy truck. Well, we just put the whole thing together. We feel this encompasses everything we are.”

There's no arguing that the band changed their name at the height of their popularity. At the Ryman show in September, Harmeier et al. had the entire crowd on their feet for the 45-minute opening set. (Even in that hallowed theater, that wasn't something audiences usually do for the first of the three bands.) There were other examples in 2023, including a year-end concert at Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa, where the band had headlining bill with the stalwart Joshua Ray Walker and cowpunk darlings the Vandoliers. The latter take particular pride in opening concerts for the hard country band formerly known as the Moonpies.

“This is my favorite Texas country band,” Vandoliers frontman Josh Fleming says of Silverada. “In the last decade, they've been one of the few bands that put on a real show. They don't stare at their boots, and their songs say something. They've won over every fan in the crowd, because dancers can dance, cowboys can cry and everyone can sing along.”

Fleming is in favor of moving to Silverada. “I think a band name is the first introduction to one's art,” he says. “When you see them live and hear what's being said, this is a serious band. If their identity doesn't match the band name, it's time to change.”

While the name Moonpies originated as a joke, it ultimately stuck with the group's fans. For Harmeier, that devotion from fans is both the reason the rebranding took so long and a source of confidence that the time is right for a change. Mile 0 Fest in particular is Harmeier's preferred setting to break the news.

“We definitely have a cult following type of demographic,” he says. “People are proud to know about us, arguably more than bands that are much more popular. And, in Key West, they're all our die-hards. Our “Mockingbird” fan group is there. I couldn't think of a better way to do it.”

With the buzz from last fall Live from The backbone of the devil still to die – Rolling rock called it the album you'd play to introduce the Martians to country music — Harmeier is also quick to reassure fans that Silverada's dynamic personality and the group's catalog isn't about to change.

“It still will be ussays Harmeier. “It sounds like we've reimagined it. It's evolutionary.”

However, he admits that the decision to become a Silverada initially kept him up at night.

“It's scary. It's a big change. But I have confidence in the product and I have confidence in the fans,” he says. “It's not a new band. It's the same band, and we're really just trying to expand and grow it and make it clear that this is what we're going to do forever.”

Josh Kratsmer is a journalist and author of the book 2020 Red Dirt: Roots Music Born in Oklahoma, raised in Texas, at home anywhere and the 2023 book The Motel Cowboy Show: On the Trail of Mountain Music from Idaho to Texas, and the Side Roads in Between.