![]() Folks seem to think first of storytelling when it comes to DBT, which is very understandable. But, it’s not as though DBT don’t know how to play guitars or give a rebel yell. There’s obviously still a love and passion for southern rock music flowing through the Whiskey Myers sound. ![]() In more ways than one, it feels as though Whiskey Myers has gone from straight Lynyrd Skynryd disciples to another band with southern roots: The Drive-By Truckers. It has more to do with them hitting their stride artistically–the beginning of their prime years. It’s not due to a lack of effort in the past. It’s not that WM hasn’t been trying to make great all-around albums in the past though. It’s “Colloquy” that makes the record complete (Secretly, the best song they’ve ever written and recorded). It’s the songs that you may never even hear played live that make this record an instant classic. You knew they had an “Early Morning Shakes,” a “Dogwood,” and a “Headstone” in them. We already knew they had those four or five songs you’d hear on the radio or on a venue pre-show playlist. But that’s really not even where they shine most. You’re seeing a band mature before your eyes–even when they’re singing about those early morning shakes, Jack Daniels in coffee, and bad habits they just can’t seem to break. Yeah, their previous albums have been solid, but Early Morning Shakes, it’s on another level–not just setting a new standard for Whiskey Myers, but really, for an entire branch of the American Music tree. Their latest album, Early Morning Shakes, is really a godsend for all intents and purposes. They’re just as much historians and scholars as they are guitar axemen, storytellers, and performers. But it’s not in that “we’re making rock n’roll with a southern grit and we should probably name drop a few of these bands to give us some street cred” kind of way. They wear those influences on their sleeve. It’s obvious that they have a certain affection to the greats of 1970s. Whiskey Myers luckily figured that part early on. Sure, those dual guitars, gravely voices, and Jack Daniels bottles littering the stage are part of what make southern rock a distinctive sound. ![]() Anyone who’s ever really listened and studied the discographies of Lynyrd Skynryd, The Allman Brothers Band, Little Feat, and others know though, that’s simply the case. This is what real southern rock sounds like.įor whatever reason, there’s always been a misconception that southern rock is more about attitude, guitars, and good times than lyrical substance. ![]() This is what windows down on the highway sound like. This is what country roads actually sound like. Though the band still needs to focus more on its songwriting, this set gives the listener a real feel for Whiskey Myers' live presence, making this set a kinetic (mostly) enjoyable whole.Hey folks. Early Morning Shakes breaks no new ground, but Whiskey Myers aren't trying to. On the other hand, the reading of David Allan Coe's "Need a Little Time Off for Bad Behavior" features the swampy, Deep Purple-esque organ, chugging harmonica, whinnying lap steel, and female backing vocals of the original while adding canny new textures and a funkier, greasier groove. "Where the Sun Don't Shine" delves too deeply into Texas's Red Dirt's wanna-be-outlaw songwriting xenophobia. Check the set's first single, "Home," the opening title track, and "Wild Baby Shake Me" for three excellent examples. It adds another dimension to the twin-guitar attack of Cody Tate and John Jeffers (who never wander off into self-indulgence here). (Though they should have known better than to record "Hard Road to Hoe," which is a blatant rip-off of the former's trademark "Heartbreaker" vamp.) Cobb's collaboration with the band adds an important element, and one that Skynyrd used to great effect: a soaring, soulful, female backing chorus that draws directly on the inspiration of Muscle Shoals-era R&B. The rest of these songs are constructed of loud and proud guitar riffs, popping rim shots, and blues-rock that nod equally to Led Zeppelin and Lynyrd Skynyrd. These cuts prove the exceptions on the set. ( Firewater actually debuted at number 26 on Billboard's Country Albums chart.) There are country tinges here, especially in the excellent "Dogwood" and "Shelter from the Rain," but these have more in common with the music on Dickey Betts' Highway Call than Nashville, and there are two interesting, largely acoustic numbers ("Reckoning" and "Colloquy"). Frontman Cody Cannon and company retain the hard-edged brand of Southern rock they've pursued from the beginning, leaving most traces of the Red Dirt scene's brand of country from 2011's Firewater and their self-titled debut fading in the rearview. Early Morning Shakes, the third full-length from Tyler, Texas' Whiskey Myers, was produced by veteran Dave Cobb (who also helmed the sessions for Jason Isbell's Southeastern).
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