How does a band get such a devoted following? How do they keep theaters full of grown-ups grooving year after year?
What's so great about the Mother Hips?
1) They make you dance.
For a groover like me, #1 is that their songs make you dance. The rhythms are rich and diverse - I enjoy finding the hook and being taken for a ride. The guitar grooves make me swing my hips, use my abs, move everything. They arrive and linger in heavy rock milieus before releasing into beauty. The harmonies lift me and let me hum along. It's soulful. For instance, I find Third Floor Story a divine feeling. Like lovemaking. (Can I say that?) It's beyond that. It's the essence of rock n roll music & ecstatic dance: finding spiritual elevation through physical activity that's guided by a rich and masterful spectrum of sound.
2) They're dudes.
Real dudes. Outdoorsy dudes. They hike, surf, sail, climb mountains, fish. They're Californian. They're NorCal. They're SoCal. They've slept on a lot of floors to find that California Soul.
Tim Bluhm, bronzed from sunshine, has a demeanor that's slightly ornery, but also fuzzy. He has rafted on the Colorado River while playing guitar and singing on video. His adventurous activities had a tragic episode when his glider crashed and he wrecked his ankle, so now he's into sailing. Sweet-voiced and very tall, he's a genius music producer. Bluhm is so masculine that he's unafraid to hit the high head tones at the right moment.
Also, their shows are an ocean of dudes. Beards, flannel shirts, careers, families.
3) They're aging quite handsomely.
The Mother Hips band members are getting better with age. They're like Bruce Springsteen. How is it they have full heads of hair and barely graying - in their 50's and 60's - while young accountants and architects are losing their hair? Of course, it's more than how they look. They are seasoned and professional. And they deliver. Mature male artists. Very attractive to listen to and watch.
4) They're Californian. And proud of it.
The Mother Hips capture the majesty of West - the swells and power of the Pacific Ocean, the dusty miles of rolling land and daunting mountains that covered-wagons traversed during the Gold Rush, and the vibrant sunsets, California road trips and outdoor music festivals that we get to experience in the most sublime places in the region.
5) They bare their souls.
Tell me what is wrong, I'll put in a song, and i'll play it on the stage. Indeed, the past 30 years of their lives are captured in their body of work. Their early adult years are laden with stories of ladies who may have been the recipients of their affections: Jess XOXO, Hey Emilie, Esmerelda, Rose of Rainbows, White Headphones. It's a colorful cast of females. I'll bet those ladies swung their hips to the music.
6) They're hot.
Prerequisite for rock n roll bands.
7) They're prolific.
One dimensional, they are not. Album after album, they produce complex songs with high musical aesthetics that are also delivered in live performances. That's why we all show up. That's why we all listen.
8) They're BAD-ASS!
Pacific Dust. Need I say more? Passion, darkness, explosiveness, magnificence.
The guitarists are best in class. Greg Loiacano's guitar slices through your spirit and then lifts you on a magic carpet. Tim is intense. The double guitar-vocal skills of Greg and Tim Bluhm are riveting and incomparable. Their individual skills are so developed, and their harmonies so complementary, that the result is... The Mother Hips. Thank gawd they've been able to work together all these years.
The bass carries you away (Rashap is one of the best) - his basslines literally make you lift your feet - think bluegrass hoedown mixed with heavy metal. Bass is not background in the Mother Hips - the volume is up, part of the balance.
The drummer (Hofer!) brings you inside the songs with relentless steadiness, then surprising but controlled tempo changes, like a wagon wheel that changes speed going up or down the hill.
Danny Eisenberg on the keys brings the gospel lift. When he gets a solo, the crowd goes wild. And he's adorable.
9) They're focused.
Being focused is hot. And it results in genius music.
10) You can sing along to Mother Hips songs.
Some of the best moments are when they play their crowd pleasers. At the 12/19/2025 Hipsmas show in San Francisco, hundreds of people sang Maa-gaa-zeene. It was brilliant. During the 2nd set, a running river of famous songs, the audience went bonkers over Smoke, One Way Out and White Falcon Fuzz. Finally going upstairs from the dance floor, I got some videos of the blissed-out audience. It was an awesome show.
Hips fans are devoted to the music of these troubadour gentleman-cowboys who share the spirit of their Western hearts with a honed skill that only grassroots maestros achieve.
I'm grateful that a fan made me a double CD back in 2013. I was thus transfigured, that is, initiated into this scene of passionate and groovy California Soul. Gotta love the Mother Hips and the West Coast lifestyle they sing about.