The Wagoneers. Photo by Gary MillerThe Wagoneers have not played many shows this year. And seeing as those few concerts were the first since the band broke up more than 20 years ago, there existed a certain urgency to seeing the band for some.

To wit, singer and guitarist Monte Warden says a longtime fan was visiting Texas from Europe this spring. He extended his trip by more than a week to see the Austin-based band, which was turning out crisp and tenacious honky-tonk when that type of music was all but extinct.

“I don’t know what it cost this fellow, but the guy that runs the club says he kept calling and asking if it was the original four members,” Warden says. “We’re not like the Temptations. Throughout all these years, the Wagoneers means four of us and not anybody else. Something special happens when we play together.”

Times seem good for those four Wagoneers, Warden, drummer Thomas Lewis Jr., bassist Craig Allan Pettigrew and lead guitarist Brent Wilson. The fiery quality that made the band a must-see act in 1988 turned into acrimony not even two years later. Two years, two albums and the Wagoneers were finished, well before an Americana movement they helped inspire.

By Warden’s account, the four members — most of whom have Houston ties or roots — had only been in the same room once since the 1989 split. Each remained in music: Warden released three solo albums and has had great success writing hits for others while Lewis, Pettigrew and Wilson have worked with legends such as Wanda Jackson and Charlie Louvin, as well as with Austin-based acts like Dale Watson and Heybale.

“A British magazine asked us why we broke up, and none of us had an answer,” Warden says. “It was like, ‘We were on the road in Detroit, we were tired ...’ He asked if maybe we could’ve just taken a week off. And yeah, I guess we could’ve, but that didn’t sound like something the Wagoneers would do.”

Warden blames youth among other things. When the band first met to talk about the reunion — originally a show for their induction into the Texas Music Hall of Fame — he says they found themselves laughing about the very things that caused conflict years before.

“Then we started to play and we thought, ‘Shit, man, this sounds fantastic.’

“It sounded like the Wagoneers instantly, only we’re grown men now. We’re better players now. I’m a better writer now. What we’re doing now, man, is trying to honor this band and what it means to people.”

The reunion feels like the resumption of unfinished business. The group also secured permission to produce 1,000 copies of The Essential Wagoneers, a diamond of an album that features the entirety of their two albums, 1988’s Stout & High and the following year’s doomed Good Fortune, along with three previously unreleased gospel tunes.

There’s no rust on the music itself. From the opening lick of I Confess, the 24 songs crackle with an ageless energy with syrupy thick guitar leads, Everly Brothers-type harmonies and a rhythm section as driving and mean as a drill sergeant.

Much of the press about the Wagoneers framed Stout & High as a masterpiece, a status it rises to, but with the passing of time Good Fortune has aged nicely also; perhaps a letdown compared to the debut but a sturdy album nevertheless.

“I had the same reaction after going some 15 years without hearing it,” Warden says. “It was tough because all the reviews for the first record looked like my grandmother had written them. We knew we couldn’t duplicate that. And I don’t think I was ready for the second one as far as the songwriting. The guys played their (butts) off But I think I could’ve written better songs than that.

“But I think we sounded good, and you can credit the guys and you can credit Emory Gordy, our producer who made sure there were capital N capital O, no bells and whistles on there. So that record doesn’t sound like an ’80s record, no (expletive) keyboards, nothing. In that way, I think it sounds good.”

Warden won’t rule out more shows. Friday’s Continental Club show will be the band’s second in Houston since patching up the Wagoneers’ wheels. They’ve been approached with offers for shows, tours and to record.

“We have some of the best songs we’ve ever had and the guys are playing them great,” Warden says. “But we’d only do this if someone let us make a Wagoneers record. We’ve made a pact with each other that we will keep doing things as long as they honor the legacy of the band. As long as they’re worthy of what the Wagoneers means to us.”

The Wagoneers
10 p.m. Friday
Continental Club
3700 Main
$20
www.continentalclub.com