Whiskey Myers Dig Into Life's Mud

The heyday of Southern Rock has long passed, and any chance at mainstream radio success is all but gone. Nevertheless, there are a handful of very talented bands keeping the genre alive, and Whiskey Myers is one of them. With the release of their new album Mud on September 9th, the band has cemented its place alongside Blackberry Smoke as the torchbearers of a genre that has fallen out of the public eye.

Based in Palestine, Texas, it's not hard to figure out how such obvious country influence creeps into their sound. While the rough-edged distorted guitar is prominent throughout the record, Whiskey Myers turn the volume down here and there with great success, turning out several new country staples in their already loaded catalog that includes fantastic songs like "Dogwood" and "Lonely East TX Nights." Perhaps that is what I find most frustrating about Whiskey Myers, as a fan. They're so good at country music that I don't understand how they can overlook that in order to primarily record southern rock songs. They're great at both, but they're better at country.

Mud is swampy, gritty, and as dirty as the album title makes it sound. Everything from the distorted guitar lines to Cody Cannon's highly accented vocals is rough around the edges in all the right ways. For songwriting fanatics, the lyrics from the album should be more than sufficient, with highlight songs like "Stone" and "Trailer We Call Home" digging into dark topics with ease and tangibility. The band turns up the distortion for grimy, dense-sounding songs like "Mud" and "Frogman." Both are a foot-stomping good time, and sure fan favorites in a live setting.

"Lightning Bugs and Rain" sits at track 3 and is a bit of an experiment for Whiskey Myers. Horns are heavy in the mix in the instrumental arrangement and they take the band's sound to a place I'm not positive that they've ventured to before. I haven't listened through this discography thoroughly enough to say for sure, though. The song, arguably the best upbeat track on the album, puts a little Memphis into tried and true southern rock, and it results in a rather charming sound. Unexpected twists often result in the worst songs on albums, but Whiskey Myers buck this trend with "Lightning Bugs and Rain."

"Deep Down in the South" is the only real misstep on Mud. It's the band beating their chest about where they're from and, quite frankly, it's a novelty worn so thin by less talented artist that it's become an annoyance. Whiskey Myers has recorded songs like this before, but they're usually better than this.

Cody Cannon continues to be the principle songwriter for Whiskey Myers, though he does write with some renowned singer/songwriters like Darrell Scott and Brent Cobb. Mud was produced by the now famous Dave Cobb, who continues to attract the brightest names on the independent scene. Cobb brought Whiskey Myers' country-fried southern rock to life in the studio, resulting in the best-sounding album that the band has recorded to date.

Overall, Whiskey Myers will always be a band that I go back to when they release new albums. I do wish that they'd dig into their country influence a bit more for at least an album's worth of songs, at some point. Nevertheless, if I have to take a bunch of fairly solid, often very good Southern Rock songs just to get to the country gems from each album, I'll happily oblige. Mud kicks ass. 8/10

Standout Tracks:
"Mud"
"Lighting Bugs and Rain"
"Stone"
"Trailer We Call Home"
"Hank"