MoJoDeans - Alt-country, 10 p.m. Friday, PK's, 308 S. Illinois Ave. 529-1124.

Southern Illinois' claim to be the birthplace of "alt-country," "cowpunk" or the "No Depression" movement, as it is called by some, has been well documented in Flipside throughout the years.

From Jason Ringenberg's mic-twirling, bar-walking antics in numerous bars along the Strip while a student at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, to Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy starting Uncle Tupelo in Belleville a decade later, our region has always had a connection to two-steps played with ragged electric guitars.

There have been a number of Southern Illinois bands who have followed in this tradition, and chief among them were the MoJoDeans. Ratliff Dean Thiebaud and Joe Swank began playing together as a duo in the mid-1990s. If you've ever seen them play, you know the two tall, burly musicians have the air of authenticity in look, as well as the musical chops to back it up. It wouldn't be a stretch to imagine them singing Hank Williams weepers or Johnny Cash prison tunes in a dirt floor saloon or behind chicken wire in a roadhouse.

At the time, the Bodeans were popular, so as a lark, they billed themselves as The JoDeans. After writing more and more original material, other band members, or More JoDeans, were added, and they became the MoJoDeans.

The band signed with the short-lived local label, Relay Records, and released a self-titled disc. The group then began touring the Southeast, playing some of the bigger festivals, including Memphis In May, Greenfest, Honky-Tonk-O-Rama and the Atlantis Music Festival, where they met future alt-country torch bearers, The Drive By Truckers, who they played several shows with. The MoJoDeans also opened for Slobberbone, Robert Earl Keen, Junior Brown and Jason and the Scorchers.

As the 2000s began, the MoJoDeans called it quits. Swank began his own group, the Mule Skinner Band, and eventually moved to North Carolina to work for Yep Roc Records. Thiebaud moved and came back, performing with Woodbox Gang for many years.

When Swank took a job with Bloodshot Records in Chicago in 2008, the opportunity arose for the band to begin playing again. Thiebaud had begun his own band, the Ratliff Dean Trio, and Swank had another outfit of his own, the Zen Pirates; however, the chemistry was still there. The band now finds itself in a position to continue where it left off almost 10 years ago, with Thiebaud and Swank on vocals and guitar, Joe Beck on bass and Chad Shaffer on drums. The MoJoDeans' music, as well as The Mule Skinner Band, is out of print, but it is available digitally on iTunes, Napster, eMusic, Sony Connect, Rhapsody, Groupie Tunes and Amazon.com.

Flipside sat down with Joe Swank to talk about the MoJoDeans and its return.

Why did you decide to get back together?

We got back together to play the "Rock Out For Rosie" benefit in Carbondale. Dean and I had played together a couple of times since the band had dissolved in the late '90s, but after the ROFR benefit, we decided we were all in close enough proximity to start kicking it on a semi-regular basis. All the songs (OK, most of the songs) were still lodged in the memory somewhere. It comes very naturally for us to play together.

What are some of the things you remember most fondly from when you were in Southern Illinois?

Well, Marion is officially home and Carbondale is spiritually home. It will be the place I come back to when I am too tired to keep moving around every few years. Fondest memories were playing the basement parties in the spring and fall around Carbondale. Old school Halloweens. All the other bands we got to play with (Randy Crouch, Domino Kings, Old #8, etc). Southern Illinois is one big fond memory, for the most part.

Since you've had time to be on the outside looking in, so to speak, how has the music scene in Southern Illinois changed since you were living here?

I don't know that the scene has changed as much as my perspective on it has changed. I see the scene in a bigger picture now. It's as great as it has ever been.

Who are the Zen Pirates?

The Zen Pirates are my North Carolina band. A hell of a bunch of cats: Scott Gilmore, Alex Little and Stephen Gardner. It was hard leaving that troupe behind, but in this day and age, it's not as difficult to have a band from a distance. We're just finishing up our first disc, "Hank Williams Died for My Sins," and are hoping to have it out in March or April of this year.

I am flying down to finish the mixing with Rick Miller (of Southern Culture on the Skids) the next to last weekend of January. Then it's just a matter of trying to get it mastered before South by Southwest comes around. The Zen Pirates are planning to make the trip down this year for the first time. Hoping to bring them up to Illinois for a CD release show, but we will have to see how the financial picture looks once it is finished and reproduced.

Do you see the MoJoDeans continuing?

Indefinitely. Whereas I would say that the Zen Pirates are the tightest band I have had to date, the MoJoDeans are like a favorite well-worn outfit. We played the songs enough back in the day that the band almost runs on auto-pilot. Dean and I have similar influences, so we tend to know where the other one is going more often than not and Chad and Little Joe are used to following us based on body language more than anything else.

I don't know that this band will ever "break up," but since everyone else has other projects going on, it may be a band of opportunity. Having said that, there are songs I would rather record with The MoJoDeans than anyone else at some point in the future, but I need to get the Zen Pirates project wrapped up first. I also perform in Chicago with former Carbondale cat Dave Schultz (Bucktown, Octobers Child, Jubilee Songbirds) and his band, The Bicycle Club, from time to time as well. We're playing together up in Sullivan on January 31.

I guess I'm too much man for just one band, but they all have very different sounds and different styles that are all fantastic in their own way. Playing with the MoJoDeans always makes me feel like I'm really home.

brent.stewart@thesouthern.com

351-5074