Micky and The Motorcars

Micky Braun served as frontman for Micky & the Motorcars, with his brother Gary Braun handling guitar duties. Childhood friends Travis Hardy on drums and Mark McCoy on bass completed the initial lineup that emerged from Idaho’s Sawtooth Mountains near Stanley. As the sons of Western swing veteran Muzzie Braun, Micky and Gary, together with their older siblings Cody and Willy, performed as part of Muzzie Braun & the Little Braun Brothers while still children and had already logged extensive stage time before reaching their teens. Cody and Willy eventually departed to launch Reckless Kelly; Micky and Gary soon joined the move to Austin, Texas, bringing Hardy and McCoy along under the Micky & the Motorcars name. Joseph Deeb was added on lead guitar to finalize the configuration.

The group cultivated a direct alternative country-rock approach and issued the independent album Which Way from Here in 2002. Two years later Smith Music Group released Ain’t in It for the Money. By then Hardy had exited, with Shane Vannerson stepping in as the first in a series of personnel adjustments. The band signed directly to Smith in 2007 and delivered Careless that same year. Naive arrived in 2008, marking the act’s initial Billboard chart entry; guitarist Kris Farrow, who remained through 2011 before Dustin Schaefer took over, appeared on the record. Raise My Glass followed and entered the Billboard country chart at number 36. McCoy departed after its release and was succeeded by Joe Fladger; he later died in a rafting accident in April 2012. Vannerson left in 2013 and Bobby Paugh filled the drum chair. The resulting lineup recorded Hearts from Above, which debuted at number 17 on the Billboard country chart.