It's a family affair on first solo record from celebrated musician Lloyd Maines

How many musicians released their debut album after turning 70 years old? No doubt it’s a short list, but you can add Lloyd Maines to it. The renowned Austin producer and multi-instrumentalist, who turned 71 in June, this week issues “Eagle Number 65,” marking the first time he’s released an album under his own name.

It’s far from the first album he’s ever played on, of course. In fact, if Maines’ own tally can be trusted, he’s appeared on close to 5,000 albums since he began doing sessions half a century ago. That works out to about 100 records a year – and it’s probably accurate, given that he played on more than 250 sessions between the onset of the pandemic in March 2020 and the end of 2021.

Maines didn’t expect to be so busy during the pandemic. But his ability to record instrumental parts remotely at his home studio and send them digitally around the world proved fruitful — especially since artists concentrated on recording because they couldn’t tour.

“I thought everything would slow down to a crawl because of the virus, and it was just the opposite,” Maines said. “People started sending me stuff, so I stayed really busy doing that.”

Maines got into such a groove working from home that he decided to finally start working on a record of his own, after many years of prodding from his good friends and fellow songwriters Terry Allen and Terri Hendrix.

Related:Our 2017 interview with Terry Allen

“They just kept hammering me that I should do my own thing — at the very least, to do it for my family,” Maines recalls. “And the further I got into it, I was like, ‘Wow, this is fun. I think I’ll go ahead and lay some stuff down as keepers.'”

The end result turned out well enough that Maines decided to share it with more than just his family. But family played a big part in the making of the album. Both his children (including daughter Natalie Maines, singer for country superstars the Chicks) and his grandchildren contributed to the album.

And then there’s “Bloodlines,” a Terry Allen song about family ties that Maines sang on and produced in the early 1980s. For “Eagle Number 65,” Maines decided to recruit his own parents’ direct descendants.

“They're both already passed on, but I wanted to include every bloodline that was a result of them,” he explained. "I've got four siblings, and then their kids, and their grandkids. So when you hear that big chorus come in on the last verse, it’s 53 people."

The track begins with the sound of toddlers laughing and talking. “There's three infants” on the recording,” Maines confirms. “I think a couple of them can sort of say some words, but the youngest one could do nothing but either cry or laugh, so she did both. I just love having those babies on there.”

“Bloodlines” is the only tune on which Maines contributed a lead vocal. Most of the album is instrumental, though granddaughter Amelia sings on “Lullaby,” a song that first appeared on the Chicks’ Grammy-sweeping 2006 album “Taking the Long Way.”

Another grandchild, Declan, plays piano on a playful tune named after him called “Declan’s Cookie.” Another track, “Hank Hill’s Nightmare,” was written by Natalie’s son Slade Pasdar and features his brother Beckett on drums.

Slade, who’s 21, is playing guitar with the Chicks on their current tour. Lloyd will join the group as well for their upcoming Texas dates, which include headlining slots at the Austin City Limits Music Festival on Oct. 7 and Oct. 14.

More:The Maines’ attraction to Austin connects the Chicks to the city

Maines also will be part of Central Texas troubadour Robert Earl Keen’s farewell-from-touring shows at John T. Floore’s Country Store in Helotes near San Antonio this weekend. (The shows are sold out, but livestream tickets are available.)

Supporting other songwriters remains Maines’ bread and butter. He’s looking forward to playing at the Oct. 27 Austin City Limits Hall of Fame ceremony honoring Joe Ely, with whom he’s toured and recorded for decades.

“I've always enjoyed being the side guy. I've never really wanted to seek any kind of limelight; I just tried to do my job,” Maines says.

“As far as I was concerned, that was as good as it was going to get. But then I started thinking about my grandkids. Probably about two years ago, I started thinking about it seriously — that I should probably get some stuff down just so my grandkids can play it for their kids, and on and on. I started getting a little sentimental about it.”

Other highlights of “Eagle Number 65” include instrumental covers of Ely’s beautiful ballad “Because of the Wind” and Hendrix’s “Wallet,” a song he says he’s performed with Hendrix at just about every show they’ve played together for the last 25 years.

There’s a few old-school favorites as well. Maines has fun with original Texas Playboys member Leon McAuliffe’s lively swing tune “Steel Guitar Rag,” and he lays down beautiful guitar and steel tones on the public-domain classics “The Water is Wide” and “Auld Lang Syne.”

The album’s name cites the uniform number Maines wore as a member of his high school football team in the 1960s. If it’s a rather obscure reference, Maines says he chose is because he wanted “something contrary to ordinary. That's sort of the way I've always always tried to live and play. That's why I play rock & roll on a on a country pedal steel, you know?”

Here’s the title track:

More new Austin music

Here’s a look at other local records released in August.

Deezie Brown, '5th Wheel Fairytale'

A Bastrop native, Brown moved to Austin a decade ago and made his recording debut with 2018’s well-received “Judith.” He issued a second solo album in 2020 and collaborated with fellow Austin hip-hop artist Jake Lloyd on the EP “Geto Gala,” which American-Statesman writer Deborah Sengupta Stith called “an ambitious platter of rich lyricism slow-dripped with Texas soul.”

“5th Wheel Fairytale” further establishes his credentials as a rising star in Austin music. Brown’s music builds on the legacy of DJ Screw and other Texas hip-hop pioneers, but it also intriguingly incorporates genres including atmospheric pop and electronica. Lloyd guests on the hard-hitting “I Met Nova at the Rodeo”; other collaborators from the local scene include the Peterson Brothers (on “Reporting Live from the Southern State”) and Malik, who appears on four tracks — most notably “Jeromeo and Juliet (Good Friday),” which also features Jackie Venson, Mobley and Hailey Orion.

Released Aug. 2.

Here’s the track “When You Fell From Heaven,” featuring Malik:

Texas Horns, 'Everybody Let’s Roll'

A trio featuring Austin saxophonists John Mills and Mark “Kaz” Kazanoff plus San Antonio trumpeter Al Gomez, the Texas Horns have long been in-demand as a backing crew on tours or recordings for Delbert McClinton, Sue Foley, Gary Nicholson and many other blues and R&B acts. Lately they’ve been on a roll with their own recordings: The fittingly titled “Everybody Let’s Roll” is their third album in seven years, following 2015’s “Blues Gotta Holda Me” and 2019’s “Get Here Quick.”

Though the emphasis is on the horn section, this isn’t an all-instrumental album. The trio brought in guest vocalists to liven up most of the 13 tracks, including Carolyn Wonderland, Marcia Ball, Guy Forsyth, Carmen Bradford and Michael Cross. Guests on the four instrumental tracks include guitarists Jimmie Vaughan and Johnny Moeller, keyboardists Matt Hubbard and Mike Flanigin, and drummer Brannen Temple.

Released Aug. 19. Release show Sept. 1 at Antone’s.

Here’s the title track, featuring Carolyn Wonderland and Anson Funderburgh:

Lisa Morales, 'She Ought to Be King'

Like the Texas Horns, Morales has ties to both Austin and San Antonio, where she made music with her late sister Roberta for years in the duo Sisters Morales. “She Ought to Be King” is her third solo album, following 2018’s acclaimed “Luna Negra and the Daughter of the Sun.”

More:Our 2018 interview with Lisa Morales

Like its predecessor. “She Ought to Be King” features songs in both English and Spanish. Morales worked with noted producer David Garza and brought in special guest Rodney Crowell for a duet on the track “Flyin’ and Cryin’.” The title track, a co-write with Austin blues guitarist Eric Tessmer, speaks to Morales’ support for women’s rights.

“I’ve been looking at how strong we women are,” Morales says on her website bio. “We keep evolving and gaining more confidence with time. We don’t sink into our own shoes — we stand taller in them. The title ‘She Ought to Be King’ echoes that.”

Released Aug. 26.

Here’s the video for the track “Freedom”:

Jeremy Nail, 'Behind the Headlights'

Though it took him almost a decade to follow up his 2007 debut – in part because of a bout with cancer — singer-songwriter Nail has been quite prolific since his attention-grabbing 2016 release “My Mountain” (produced by Alejandro Escovedo). Two more albums followed in 2018 and 2019, and now comes “Behind the Headlights,” which he co-produced with Pat Manske. All four records have exuded a quiet grace with acoustic-centered music, but his songwriting has grown with each album, and “Behind the Headlights” is his strongest set of songs to date.

Released Aug. 26.

Here’s the video for the track “Something More”:

Reid Bros., 'Southern Spheres'

The first full-length album from singer-songwriter Reid Umstattd, released under a pseudonym taken from a clothing store his ancestors operated in Mississippi, expands upon the promise of his 2019 debut EP “Pockets of Clouds.” Working with producer Brian Douglas Phillips, Umstattd delivers a dozen songs steeped in traditional American rock & roll centered around his compellingly dramatic lead vocals.

Released Aug. 12.

Here’s the track “Ease My Worried Mind”:

Also out in August

Buenos Diaz, “Cocaine Queen” (Aug. 5); Western Express, “Lunatics, Lovers & Poets” (Aug. 5); Sharon Bourbonnais, “Party Party Dance Dance” (Aug. 17); Watters, “Mellow” EP (Aug. 26).

Coming soon

SEPT. 9: Charley Crockett, “The Man From Waco”

SEPT. 9: Deer, “The Beautiful Undead”

SEPT. 9: Jonathan Terrell, “A Couple 2, 3…” EP

SEPT. 16: Black Angels, “Wilderness”

SEPT. 16: Jason & Brit, “Survival Skills” EP

SEPT. 23: Sunny Sweeney, “Married Alone”

SEPT. 23: Mobley, “Cry Havoc” EP

SEPT. 30: Andrea Magee, “Belfast Girl”

SEPT. 30: David Beck, “Bloom & Fade”

OCT. 7: Dayglow, “People in Motion”

OCT. 7: Michael Paul Lawson, “Love Songs for Loners”

OCT. 14: Randy Rogers Band, “Homecoming”

OCT. 21: Joe Ely, “Flatland Lullaby”

OCT. 21: Twain, “Noon”

OCTOBER: Gurf Morlix, “Caveman”

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Lloyd Maines releases his first solo album, and more new Austin music