Playing classic-style country music with a strong undertow of vintage soul, the Hacienda Brothers are a collaboration between two gifted roots music artists. Vocalist Chris Gaffney is a singer and songwriter who has released several albums with his band, the Cold Hard Facts, and recorded and toured as a member of Dave Alvin & the Guilty Men, while Dave Gonzalez is best known as the guitarist, singer, and songwriter with the veteran blues-rockabilly combo the Paladins. Longtime friends Gaffney and Gonzalez first performed together when they played an informal set for a mutual friend's birthday party in 2002; Gonzalez was impressed with the results, and as he was looking for an outlet for the country-style songs he was unable to perform with the Paladins, he proposed a more formal collaboration.