The Hacienda Brothers began in 2002 when friends Chris Gaffney and Dave Gonzalez played together during a planned jam session at the 40th birthday party of their mutual friend Jeb Schoonover. Gonzalez is a singer, songwriter, and guitar player, then mainly active with
The Paladins. After playing on stage together, and at the urging of Schoonover (who would become their business partner and manager), they soon joined in
Tucson, Arizona, to write and record their first album. The album was praised widely;
Vintage Guitar called it "a great CD." ''What's Wrong with Right
, also produced by Penn, was released the following year and garnered critical accolades. Bob Mehr, writing for Mojo Magazine, praised its "authentic sawdust-floor shuffles" and "cinematic Morricone twang." and by R&R'' as one of the top 100 Albums of 2006. Band leaders Gaffney and Gonzalez were interviewed by
Terry Gross on NPR's
Fresh Air; and Gonzalez was voted one of the "Top 101 All-time Unsung Guitar Heroes" by
Guitar Player Magazine. In 2007, they were nominated for "Group of the Year" by the American Music Association. In August 2007, they released a live album
Music for Ranch & Town. Chris Gaffney died of liver cancer on April 17, 2008, while the band was wrapping up the recording of their third studio album,
Arizona Motel. The album received great critical acclaim and was called "forceful and timeless." A positive review accompanied an "in memoriam" article for Gaffney in
Vintage Guitar; a later review in the same magazine said the album "kicked butt": "This album delivers more moments of greatness, more consistently, than any of their previous releases and is a fully realized work of music-craft." The band planned on touring in support of a tribute album for Gaffney on at least one occasion they were joined by Dave Alvin as a special guest. In 2009, a tribute album to Gaffney was released, ''A Man of Somebody's Dreams: A Tribute to the Songs of Chris Gaffney'', which included songs played by fellow Hacienda Brothers as well as others. ==Song choice==