"Mos Maiorum" means "the time-honored traditions of the ancestors" in the Latin of the ancient Romans. The songs of Mos Maiorum evoke the time-honored traditions of American music. Rejecting all the foofarah of recording and producing and arranging and group psychology that making a rock 'n' roll record usually entails, Ted Silar, having put together a set of original straight-ahead American roots music, was set loose in Mike Perkin's basement studio with nothing but a microphone, a soundboard, and a nylon-string acoustic guitar reminiscent of Willie Nelson's "Trigger"—and Mos Maiorum is the result. Once upon a time, there was a band, a band with all the potential in the world and no money no-how no-way whatsoever, a band based in East Austin, Texas, a band spotlighting veteran Texas bluesman Hank Drury and virtuoso James Cotton-style harmonicist, California Jeff Kile. Two of the songs on Mos Maiorum, "Crazy 'bout You, Baby," and "Sweet Young Thing," are all that remains of that valiant but doomed effort. The rockabilly ghosts of Johnny Burnette, Gene Vincent, and Eddie Cochran can be heard in songs like "Ramona," "Long Gone," and "Why She Loves Me," the melodic styling of Buddy Holly in "If There's One Thing," the swooping vocal acrobatics of Robert Johnson in "On Account of My Heart," the lazy sound of the Elvis of "One Night with You" jamming in a tight-knit circle of friends in "Pass Round the Bottle," and the late-night AM, drifting porch-swing sounds of Harry Belafonte in "All Night Long, Maryanne." At least, these are the inspirations, the aspirations, the Mos Maiorum.