People filed onto the dance floor as Back Porch Mary began to introduce country rock beats into Longhorn's Saloon Friday night. The four-piece band specializes in fusing honky-tonk and rock, a sound the crowd showed their appreciation for by dancing along with the music.

The crowd size increased as the headlining band took the stage, and more people migrated to the dance floor as the music began. The audience matched the band's style by wearing cowboy boots, as well as quite a few cowboy hats. While maintaining its rock style, the band also found it easy to create rhythms that supplied good dancing music, of which the crowd took full advantage.

The band formed in 2001 when three of the band members met in Manhattan and decided to move to Texas where they picked up a fourth member to complete their lineup. The members set out to mix honky-tonk and rock 'n' roll together to develop a sound they call power-tonk.

Members of the band include Mike Krug on the guitar/vocals, Shane “Slim” Laurence on guitar/vocals, Joe Miller on electric/upright bass, and Ryan Kyle on drums. The band's style includes a heavy dependence on all members of the band to create its full sound, but also emphasizes individuals and solos.

The band brought energy to the stage at Longhorn's, eliciting crowd involvement with blues-rock style solos and stage theatrics. The upright bass made its appearance several songs into the set, and shortly thereafter featured a solo. The upright bass can also be played horizontally, at which point Krug jumped on top of it while Miller continued to play.

The band said it enjoys coming to Manhattan since it's always fun to come home to see old friends and make new ones. The band certainly found many friends to share its music with, judging from the crowd size and amiable atmosphere at Longhorn's. The band relies heavily on touring, and has performed with acts like Cross Canadian Ragweed, Ted Nugent, Fuel, John Michael Montgomery and Reverend Horton Heat. Estimated record sales to date surpass 50,000 copies, a testament to the band's popularity.

The music played on Friday included southern-blues style rock, slower country ballads, twangy guitar slides, vocal harmonizing and both country and blues-rock style guitar solos. Another element was a softer, more acoustic sound with overlapping country-style guitar slide solos and a strong bass line.

The band has four albums, and the most recent is "Time of the Broken Heart." The new CD is the first with Smith Music Group, which is based in Fort Worth, Texas, and features mainly country, folk rock and southern rock artists. This album was produced, recorded and mixed by one of the band's own, Laurence.

To sample its music and learn more about the band, check out www.myspace.com/backporchmarytexas.

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