In 1994 in New York City, Elana James placed an ad in the music section of the Village Voice looking to join a band, and Whit Smith answered it. Since then the music these two have made has always been a secret brew of energy, joie de vivre, and a respect for tradition that is often imitated but never equaled. By 1997, after founding a much larger Western swing orchestra in NYC, Elana and Whit pared back down to their essential elements and the duo that began as “Whit & Elana” grew — with the addition of a bass player and a lot of optimism and naïveté — into Hot Club of Cowtown. The trio moved to Austin, Texas, and released its first album, Swingin’ Stampede, in 1998 after signing with American roots label HighTone Records. Tall Tales (1999) and Dev’lish Mary (2000) soon followed, but it wasn’t until 2001 that the band’s lineup solidified with the arrival of bassist Jake Erwin, who cemented Hot Club’s larger-than-life, earth-shaking rhythmic foundation. Ghost Train (2002) first showcased the band’s shift toward original songwriting and Continental Stomp (2003) is a live album recorded in the Hot Club of Cowtown’s natural habitat and joyful home base, the Continental Club in Austin, Texas. In 2008 American label Shout Factory released a 20-track Best of the Hot Club of Cowtown retrospective, followed by Wishful Thinking (2009). In 2011 the band released the first of a three-part series of albums dedicated exclusively to its roots: What Makes Bob Holler arrived in 2011 with Western swing standards made famous by Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys; Rendezvous in Rhythm was released in 2013, a collection of American Songbook standards and Gypsy-influenced hot jazz in the style of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli; and in 2016 Midnight on the trail, re-imagined cowboy ballads, traditional Western swing, and songs by Gene Autry, Cindy Walker, Johnny Mercer, Bob Wills, Tommy Duncan, and others, was released in 2016. To celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2017 the Hot Club of Cowtown re-released Western Clambake which was previously available only as a cassette that the band created in 1997 to sell while busking in San Diego’s farmers markets and at Balboa Park.Crossing the Great Divide (2019) is the band’s latest recording, a seven-song EP of songs by Robbie Robertson, Bob Dylan and The Band to celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Band’s first two albums, Music from Big Pink and The Band. An album of new material is in the works for fall 2019 release.