Despite traveling far beyond the horizon of the Lone Star State, the members of country-rock outfit Whiskey Myers have always remained true to their Texas roots.
Khris Poage
Whiskey Myers
From before the release of their debut album, Road of Life, in 2008, they’ve toured relentlessly, building a devoted fan base with their hard-edge, down-home songs. Their fifth, self-titled album arrived on September 27, and it's the first release they’ve produced themselves.
“We had the freedom to do whatever we wanted,” frontman Cody Cannon says.“Not that we hadn’t before—it’s just that there was no outside person going, ‘Well, maybe it should actually go this way.’ It was all on us.”
Whiskey Myers hit stores in the middle of the group’s 2019 Die Rockin’ Tour, which kicked off in January. But the bandmates have been on the road semi-regularly since they unveiled their last album, 2016’s Mud, which, like 2014’s Early Morning Shakes, was produced by Dave Cobb (Chris Stapleton, The Highwomen). What led the sextet to take the helm in the studio was a desire to try something different—on another level, it seems like a checkpoint in the band’s true course, taking on the producer role to keep outside sources contained.
“Doing it ourselves played a major part in what you hear,” guitarist John Jeffers says. “We got to waste time on the important stuff, and really dial in on tones for drums and guitar and everything.”
Khris Poage
Whiskey Myers
The band’s music and story have developed organically—as Cannon says, “There’s never been a vision. We’ve never chased a sound. It just comes out.” Its members formed the band when Jeffers (the youngest of the group) was 20 years old, shortly after he and Cannon began learning guitar together. When it came time to christen their project, they took the name from a legendary Mexican fighting chicken.
“I dunno how we did it back then,” Jeffers says. “Man, we were so young. But now, I feel like we’ve matured. We really understand what we want to do with a song, and where to put what.”
The East Texans completely removed themselves from everyday life last July to record their forthcoming album at Sonic Ranch, a residential studio located on a 1,700-acre pecan orchard in Tornillo, Texas. This is an oft-used method for artists looking to refresh their creativity—to let go of commonplace distractions and remember where they came from and why they do what they do. In the case of Whiskey Myers, its creators returned to form, writing from the gut and playing from the heart. But there’s a noticeable touch of the band’s rich music taste in the songs’ production.
Certain tracks, like “Bury My Bones” and “Bad Weather,” begin with stripped-down guitar or mandolin vamps that lead into full-band folk jams. “Glitter Ain’t Gold” is redolent of earlier gospel rock songs the band has released, like “Hard Row to Hoe,” but the former is driven by a laid-back, swampy groove rather than a hard rock riff. There’s a bluesy undertone to every song, no matter its style. Cannon’s strident drawl matches or exceeds the energy of the music at every moment—it, and the album’s crisp production, are the two unifying forces in the album’s diverse tracklist.
“You can tell where the magic happens,” Jeffers says. “Once the band gets together, it’s kind of a no-brainer. When everybody looks up and smiles when you’re playing one, everybody knows, ‘That’s a keeper.’ It’s been that way ever since we started.”