The following article was published in March of 1999.

"For some of those people, it was like the happiest time of their lives," Kevin McKinney said recently, referring to the earliest days of his band, Soulhat. "I just felt that I was along for the ride."

McKinney, along with fellow SU alumni Bill Cassis and Brian Walsh '89, formed Soulhat at Southwestern University during the summer of 1990. McKinney, a communication major from Dallas, who got his first guitar at age six, had never written a song before that fateful summer. But when the muse came, it was as prolific as any a Southwestern summer has ever seen.

"I was working over at the Physical Plant, which I really enjoyed. But because it was summer, there was nothing else to do in my free time besides sit around and record on the four-track. I must've recorded a hundred songs."

By that fall, Soulhat had become a functioning unit, which, on the backs of Southwestern students and an increasingly diverse Austin audience, drove them from a weekly show at 'the Club' to a successful two-night-a-week residency at Austin's Black Cat Lounge.

"I'm flattered that people seem to like that period so much, but you can't keep it up forever," said McKinney of the Black Cat days, which solidified their presence on the Austin music scene and left them with the uncomfortable moniker of 'a great jam band.' "The length of our shows were more like what had to be done, not necessarily what we wanted to do. We were a working band, after all."

In addition to being in a working band, McKinney found time to be both a full-time college student (completing his BA in four years in 1992) and an active member of his fraternity, Kappa Sigma. Classmates remember McKinney as a shy, quiet student who still managed to show up for his early morning classes, even if after a full night of work at the Black Cat. This was quite in contrast to McKinney's wacky, outgoing stage persona, which was - to say the least - a great part of Soulhat's charm.

The following three years would see Soulhat rise from a popular bar band to the cusp of national prominence. With no major label backing them, no status with the media, no booking agent or publicist, they managed to make their own direct-to-two-track tape Live at the Black Cat Lounge, followed the next year by a nationally-distributed compact disc, Outdebox. The latter featured cover art by another S.U. alumnus, Adam Bork '92 (a.k.a. Earthpig), and was an instant local success.

During the two years following the release of Outdebox, Soulhat's world rapidly began to grow. They toured with the popular band Blues Traveler on the West Coast, and as a result of their strength, also opened a series of HORDE Festival (Horizons of Rock Developing Everywhere) shows. They also toured the southeast, mid-Atlantic and northeast with the Dave Matthews Band, even trading-off headlining spots with the now monster act.

Even despite the success they enjoyed (including a Best Band nod at the 1994 Austin Music Awards and being signed by Epic Records the same year), McKinney left Soulhat in 1995, shortly following the departure of drummer, Barry Frosty Smith.

"There was confusion," McKinney said. "I think a lot of our fans didn't understand what happened to us and the harder-edged sound that came with the Epic record. On tour, people seemed to be expecting something entirely different. They showed up looking for a heavy metal band."

Yet the break-up of Soulhat in early 1995 did not stop McKinney from finding new places to express his talent. He began backing-up Adam Bork on bass as a member of Earthpig & Fire. And in 1996, McKinney and Walsh joined drummer Conrad Choucroun (also drummer for Banana Blender Surprise) to form Shat Records, another trio that built a Wednesday night following at Antone's with an entirely new repertoire, featuring McKinney's zany lyrics, catchy songs and, as always, brilliant musical hooks.

Then, in December 1996, something magical happened. All of the former members of Soulhat agreed to play two shows at Liberty Lunch. The show was billed as a "reunion," but after their first song on that cold Friday night, it was apparent that little had changed musically in 16 months. All the playfulness was there; the melodies that lifted and twisted, flowing effortlessly, as if the last Soulhat gig had been played only the night before, in another bar in another town.

After another few months, the band reemerged as a trio, with McKinney at the helm (Cassis declined an invitation to play). They eventually wrangled another guitar player, Mac McNabb (formerly of Trish Murphy's band), and were forced to find another bass player when Brian Walsh departed the group last August to be a full-time father.

"It was hard losing Brian. He was my partner for so many years," said McKinney. "But the new guys - McNabb and new bass player John Vogelsang - are doing well. And I think we're finally starting to hit that groove."

Having released a independent, six-song EP in December, McKinney and the band plan to follow-up with a full-length record, to be issued in the fall (no word on whether a label will support it).

McKinney lives in Austin with his wife, Cynthia. In addition to listening to his ever-growing collection of vinyl records and searching for the perfect Les Paul, he enjoys playing golf and whipping unwitting competitors at Scrabble.