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Whiskey Myers

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East Texas band whose southern rock runs far heavier than anything on country radio, built into a serious live draw by years of relentless touring.

Whiskey Myers began in Palestine, Texas, when Cody Cannon and John Jeffers learned guitar together, drawn to Lynyrd Skynyrd, Hank Williams Jr. and Waylon Jennings. Cannon's co-worker Cody Tate joined on guitar, followed by drummer Jeff Hogg and Cannon's cousin Gary Brown on bass, though Brown had never played the instrument before. The five built a following playing around the Texas and Red Dirt circuit before recording together.

The band works in a southern rock idiom more than a Nashville one: twin guitars, slide, organ and a rhythm section that leans hard into blues-rock, with lyrics rooted in small-town Texas life. The current lineup also includes keyboardist and percussionist Tony Kent, who joined in 2016, and bassist Jamey Gleaves, who replaced Brown in 2017. Early records were made with producer Dave Cobb, and the band built its audience through constant touring rather than country radio.

Their catalogue runs from the 2008 debut Road of Life through Firewater in 2011, which reached the Top 30 of Billboard's Country Albums chart on the strength of "Ballad of a Southern Man," to Early Morning Shakes in 2014 and Mud in 2016. Each record extended the band's reach without depending on radio play, building steadily on the strength of the group's live shows.

Their profile widened considerably when the band appeared in four episodes of the television series Yellowstone in 2018, sending their existing albums into the iTunes country top ten and pushing Mud to No. 1, with its song "Stone" reaching No. 9 across all genres. Their 2019 self-titled album debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Country chart and No. 6 on the Billboard 200, followed by Tornillo in 2022 and Whomp Whack Thunder in 2025.

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