The Legendary Shack Shakers (originally Those or Th' ) are an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

rock band from

Murray, Kentucky Murray is a home rule-class city in Calloway County, Kentucky, United States. It is the seat of Calloway County and the 19th-largest city in Kentucky. The city's population was 17,741 during the 2010 U.S. census, and its micropolitan area's po ...

that was formed in 1995 by

J.D. Wilkes Joshua "J. D." Wilkes (born April 18, 1972) is an American visual artist, musician, amateur filmmaker and author. He is best known as the singer for the rock music, rock band Legendary Shack Shakers, and is also an accomplished harmonica player, ...

. The original line-up formed the band out of a shared interest in rockabilly,

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

and Western swing. Subsequently, the band gained prominence in the

alternative country Alternative country, or alternative country rock (sometimes alt-country, insurgent country, Americana, or y'allternative), is a loosely defined subgenre of country music and/or country rock that includes acts that differ significantly in style ...

scene with a sound that encompassed rockabilly, blues, country and punk rock and a lyrical focus on Southern Gothic themes. Over time, the band's sound shifted to emphasize country music.

History

Formation

Singer and harmonica player

developed an interest in

Delta blues Delta blues is one of the earliest-known styles of blues. It originated in the Mississippi Delta, and is regarded as a regional variant of country blues. Guitar and harmonica are its dominant instruments; slide guitar is a hallmark of the s ...

music as a teenager living in Paducah, Kentucky as a result of disinterest in the decade's popular music styles, familiarizing himself with the music of Muddy Waters,

Lightning Hopkins Samuel John "Lightnin" Hopkins (March 15, 1912 – January 30, 1982) was an American country blues singer, songwriter, guitarist and occasional pianist from Centerville, Texas. In 2010, ''Rolling Stone'' magazine ranked him No. 71 on its list o ...

, Brownie McGhee and Charlie Patton before moving backward into older styles of music "to see the roots of the roots". He formed the Legendary Shack Shakers in Peducah with members of another band, Solid Rocket Boosters, who shared his interest in rockabilly,

and Western swing; according to Wilkes, the only difference between the two bands was that they have different drummers. The original lineup of the Legendary Shack Shakers consisted of Wilkes, guitarists Nathan Brown and Brian Berryman, upright bassist Todd Anderson and drummer Chris Dettloff -- three of which were Murray State art majors, while the remaining two were a physics major and a psychology major. The band's line-up subsequently changed to Wilkes on lead vocals and harmonica, JoeBuck on guitar, Mark "The Duke" Robertson on upright bass, and Pauly Simmonz on drums, all of which alternatively played for local country music acts, most notably with Wilkes and

JoeBuck Joe Buck is the stage name of Jim Finklea, an American country and punk rock musician from Murray, Kentucky. His primary instruments are double bass and guitar. Joe Buck's first serious musical project was called Gringo. They released self-title ...

touring as members of Hank Williams III's backing band.

Breakthroughs

Legendary Shack Shakers' 2002 album, '' Cockadoodledon't'', established their prominence in the

scene. After self-releasing their recordings, including ''Cockadoodledon't'', the self-classified "insurgent country" record label Bloodshot Records reissued ''Cockadoodledon't'' in 2003. After JoeBuck left the band to join Hank Williams III's band full time, David Lee became the Legendary Shack Shakers' new guitarist, and the band signed with Yep Roc Records. In 2005, Simmonz left the band and was replaced by Brett Whitacre. that year,

Robert Plant Robert Anthony Plant (born 20 August 1948) is an English singer and songwriter, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the English rock band Led Zeppelin for all of its existence from 1968 until 1980, when the band broke up following the ...

asked the Legendary Shack Shakers to open for him on his European tour. The following year, the band opened for Marty Stewart and Travis Tritt in 2006 at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. Subsequently, the band experienced increased mainstream media attention when

GEICO The Government Employees Insurance Company (GEICO ) is a private American auto insurance company with headquarters in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It is the second largest auto insurer in the United States, after State Farm. GEICO is a wholly owne ...

featured their song "CB Song" in one of their commercials, and the band's song "Swampblood" was included on the soundtrack to the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

series '' True Blood'', earning the band a Grammy Award nomination. 2009 saw the addition of Duane Denison, formerly of the Jesus Lizard, to the line-up. The band released their seventh studio album; '' AgriDustrial'', on April 13, 2010 on their own Colonel Knowledge record label. The band would subsequently go on hiatus from 2010 to 2015, after which they reformed with a new line-up consisting of Wilkes on vocals, harmonica and banjo, Robertson on bass, Rod Hamdallah on guitar, and Brett Whitacre on drums, and signed with Alternative Tentacles. In 2017, Wilkes released his first solo album, ''Fire Dream'', and the Legendary Shack Shakers' line-up changed to Wilkes, Hamdallah and new rhythm section, bassist Fuller Condon and drummer Preston Corn, before the band recorded and released the album ''After You've Gone'', a song cycle inspired by Wilkes' divorce. In 2019, the band performed on the PBS television series ''Sun Studio Sessions'', and released an album of this performance under the title ''Live from Sun Studio''. In 2020, the band planned to play in Aurora, Kentucky, but the performance was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequently delayed until the following year. With a new line-up consisting of Wilkes, guitarist Gary Siperko, upright bassist Fuller Condon and drummer Preston Corn, the band released ''Cockadoodledeux'', an album of traditional country and Western songs which includes guest appearances by seven former members of the band, as well as Alternative Tentacles founder Jello Biafra.

Musical style

says that the original incarnation of the Legendary Shack Shakers focused on playing rockabilly, "

hillbilly Hillbilly is a term (often derogatory) for people who dwell in rural, mountainous areas in the United States, primarily in southern Appalachia and the Ozarks. The term was later used to refer to people from other rural and mountainous areas west ...

" music, Memphis blues and Western swing. Wilkes described the Legendary Shack Shakers' music as " Americana rockabilly"; ''Vail Daily'' said that the band performs a mix of

, rock, punk rock, and country music. The ''Phoenix New Times'' said that "the southern gothic rockabilly act goes above and beyond much of those genres to throw down their captivating version of hillbilly blues-rock." The ''Kalamazoo Gazette'' described the Legendary Shack Shakers' music as "mutant Southern rock". AllMusic described the Legendary Shack Shakers as a "raucous roots rock band". According to ''City Beast'', the band's musical style also encompasses country blues and carnival music. Wilkes publicly disavowed the

psychobilly Psychobilly is a rock music fusion genre that fuses elements of rockabilly and punk rock. It's been defined as "loud frantic rockabilly music", it has also been said that it "takes the traditional countrified rock style known as rockabilly, ram ...

label the band is sometimes categorized under, considering the genre's performers "all pompadour and no substance", stating of the scene, "These new bands trying to sound like the Cramps or doing the ‘hellbilly’ thing — they only pick up on the clichés of it." Wilkes took issue with the genre's fans' lack of familiarity with rockabilly artists like

Charlie Feathers Charles Arthur Feathers (June 12, 1932 – August 29, 1998) was an American musician most associated with the rockabilly scene of the 1950s. Although not initially recognized for his contributions to rockabilly, over time his presence would bec ...

and dismissed psychobilly performers as " mall punk with pompadours", calling psychobilly fans "pompadork". Wilkes stated regarding the band's use of the term " Southern Gothic", "I don’t think we’re Goth in the sense of veils and black clothing, people in perpetual mourning, funereal mode. ..It’s the traditional term, rather than the trendy, Americanized, fad version of it. .. outhern Gothictakes an angle that there’s something grotesque and beautiful in the traditions of the South, the backdrop of Southern living." Wilkes connects the many styles the band performs to the blues, saying that he considers rockabilly "the white man's version of blues" and

klezmer Klezmer ( yi, קלעזמער or ) is an instrumental musical tradition of the Ashkenazi Jews of Central and Eastern Europe. The essential elements of the tradition include dance tunes, ritual melodies, and virtuosic improvisations played for l ...

to be "the Jew's blues". He described the band's performance as being "like a Pentecostal church revival, whipping them into a frenzy and getting them involved in the moment." When Duane Denison joined the band, the Legendary Shack Shakers shifted their sound again, with Wilkes calling this new sound "agridustrial", explaining that it is "kind of chunky industrial patterns, but give it kind of a rustic feel ..like the sounds of farm implements, that clanking cacophony of rural industry. Kind of like how

Johnny Cash John R. Cash (born J. R. Cash; February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an American country singer-songwriter. Much of Cash's music contained themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption, especially in the later stages of his ca ...

used a train rhythm." Since 2015, the Legendary Shack Shakers have predominantly played country music. Wilkes cited as musical influences Little Walter, Howlin' Wolf, Tom Waits, the Louvin Brothers, Dock Boggs, James Harman and Roscoe Holcomb. Outside of musical influences, Gary Larson's '' The Far Side'' cartoon "

Cow Tools "Cow Tools" is a cartoon from ''The Far Side'' by American cartoonist Gary Larson, published in October 1982. It depicts a cow standing in front of a table of bizarre, misshapen implements with the caption "Cow tools". The cartoon confused many ...

" inspired the name of one of the band's introductions.

Discography

; Studio albums *'' J.D.'s Tasteless Chill Tonic '' (Conan Records, 1996) *'' Hunkerdown ''(Spinout, 1998) *'' Cockadoodledon't'' ( Bloodshot, 2003) *''

Believe Believe may refer to: *Belief, a psychological state in which an individual holds a proposition or premise to be true, with or without proof for such proposition *Faith, a belief in something which has not been proven Arts, entertainment, and me ...

'' ( YepRoc, 2004) *'' Pandelirium'' (YepRoc, 2006) *''

Swampblood ''Swampblood'' is the sixth studio album by American rock band Legendary Shack Shakers. Musical style The music of ''Swampblood'' encompasses rockabilly, alternative country, bluegrass, blues, country, psychobilly, rock and roll, Southern Goth ...

'' (YepRoc, 2007) *'' AgriDustrial'' (Colonel Knowledge, 2010) *''The Southern Surreal'' (Alternative Tentacles Records, 2015) *''After You've Gone'' (Last Chance Records, 2017) *''Cockadoodledeux'' (Alternative Tentacles, 2021) ;Live albums *'' Lower Broad Lo-Fi ''(Arkam Records, 2007) *'' Live from Sun Studio '' (Chicken Ranch Records, 2020)

Filmography

* ''

Seven Signs In Christian scholarship, the Book of Signs is a name commonly given to the first main section of the Gospel of John, from 1:19 to the end of Chapter 12. It follows the Hymn to the Word and precedes the Book of Glory. It is named for seven no ...

'', shown at the Raindance Film Festival 2008

References

External links

Official website

Artist Page on YepRoc Records

Artist Page on Bloodshot Records
;Interviews and reviews
Interview and Performance on Corporate Country Sucks TV show.

Harp Magazine Interview, 2003

{{DEFAULTSORT:Legendary Shack Shakers, The Alternative Tentacles artists American alternative country groups American blues musical groups American punk rock groups American southern rock musical groups Bloodshot Records artists Country music groups from Kentucky Gothic country groups Rockabilly music groups Roots rock music groups Yep Roc Records artists