Whiskey Myers make honest music.
Loud and proud, they sing about what they know with a refreshing directness and clarity. Some call it rebel
music, but it's more like everyday soul. Their songs are stories, with characters and situations that are
immediately relatable. Stories of celebration, of mourning, of trials and triumph. Through the quality of
these songs, and their undeniable power in concert and on record, the band has attracted a devoted army of
outspoken fans who pack venues, sing the band's praises online, and continue to make Whiskey Myers a
growing word-of-mouth sensation.
Whiskey Myers' most recent full-length, Firewater, was released on their own Wiggy Thump imprint in the
spring of 2011. It continues to sell steadily, enjoying a remarkable run on the Texas Music Charts that
culminated with its third single "Anna Marie" reaching #1. All over their home state, they are commanding
larger and larger crowds, selling out 1,000-capacity venues with ease and delivering stadium-sized shows
grounded in the sincerity and unpretentious, fun-loving energy of their bar-band roots. "Our fans always
tell us how much they get out of seeing us play," says lead singer Cody Cannon, " but it's a two-way street:
We get something, too. They inspire us to dedicate ourselves more and more to our music and our sound.
And it sure feels like it's paying off."
As their chemistry onstage and in the studio reflect, Whiskey Myers is a brotherhood. The five members cut
their teeth together, honing their chops side-by-side from an early age. Hailing from Palestine, Texas,
Cannon was given an acoustic guitar by his "wild-ass biker" (Cody's words) grandpa, and guitarist John
Jeffers's dad taught them both the rudiments of the instrument. A job at a sporting goods store introduced
Cannon to future Whiskey Myers lead guitarist Cody Tate, forming the songwriting core of the band. Upon
moving to Tyler, Texas, they picked up drummer Jeff Hogg and enlisted Cannon's cousin Gary Brown on
bass—even though he'd never played the instrument before.
What came next was a blur of gigs, songs, struggles, and victories: With each show, their natural bond as
friends continued to grow into a formidable musical telepathy, and with each song they composed, their
innate gifts as craftsmen were honed further. The resultant sound, so perfectly crystallized on Firewater, is
hard-driving and immediate, steeped in the rich legacy of southern rock. Often reduced to a onedimensional
stereotype, the kind of music that inspired Whiskey Myers—artists like Lynyrd Skynyrd, the
Allman Brothers, and Hank Williams, Jr.—is actually multifaceted and inventive, drawing from country,
R&B, psychedelic rock, and stringband traditions.
In that tradition, Whiskey Myers are grand southern eclectics, pulling in an array of influences and
seamlessly mingling them. Listeners can pick up traces of everything from grunge to rockabilly in the
course of a set, united by Cannon's soulfully heartfelt singing and Brown and Hogg's solid, supple
foundation. On top of it all, Tate and Jeffers intertwine their leads, soaring in harmony one moment, darting
around one another in intricate improvisations the next. Sure, they're rousing—just cue up "Bar, Guitar,
and a Honky Tonk Crowd" or "Turn It Up" for a dose of pile-driver intensity. But they're range is wide and
expanding to encompass touching pleas like "Broken Window Serenade" and the acoustic stomp of "Anna
Marie."
In Whiskey Myers' world, nothing is off-limits. Nothing is too personal, too sensitive, or too controversial
to embrace and explore. Theirs is a confidence born of a long-standing brotherhood—a closeness that few
groups can rival. "Well we all grew up together," bassist Brown explains. "We're two sets of cousins. Some
of us have been friends since we were two or three years old."

Della Mae recorded This World Oft Can Be at Cash Cabin Studio, Johnny Cash's former recording base, in Hendersonville, Tennessee, with noted guitarist Bryan Sutton in the producer's chair. (Artists who have recorded at Cash Cabin over the years include Rosanne Cash, Elvis Costello, Emmylou Harris, Merle Haggard, and George Jones). In addition to absorbing the studio's inspirational vibes, Courtney Hartman played June Carter Cash's vintage 1933 Gibson L5 Round Hole guitar on "Some Roads Lead On," while Ludiker had the honor of borrowing John Hartford's custom carved fiddle on "Letter From Down The Road." The album was mixed by Paul Q. Kolderie, whose production resume includes albums with the likes of Hole, Radiohead and Dinosaur Jr.
"The whole band had a big part in arranging the songs, most written by Celia and Courtney, and together we molded them into what you'll hear on the album," Ludiker notes, adding, "The vibe at Cash Cabin Studio is incredible, and we did a lot of live recording. We overdubbed vocal harmonies and solos here and there, but it's basically just us playing together in the same room. 'Some Roads Lead On' was captured on one microphone, in one take."
In addition to playing festivals and clubs throughout the United States, Della Mae recently expanded the scale of its touring efforts after participating in the U.S. State Department's American Music Abroad program. Selected as cultural ambassadors, the band spent 43 days traveling in Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, where they collaborated with local musicians, taught educational programs for children, and played concerts for local audiences.
"It's been a life-changing experience for us, individually and as a band," Ludiker says of the tour. "A cool thing about playing music in Central Asian countries is in the lack of distinction their audience places between musical genres. We found that if music is played with feeling, all people connected to it. They find themselves smiling and relating without even understanding the language."