Wayne Hancock save my life and doesn’t even know it. I know you all love a story and boy do I have one for you this time. Once upon a time I lived in a land far away from home. You see I had packed up the whole horde and moved them to Phoenix, AZ. This might have been a worse decision than marrying my first wife! I was as miserable as miserable could be. I only found one juke joint where I could even feel at home. I started plotting my escape within a month of getting there! As it came to pass, about three months and two weeks in to our self-imposed exile to Satan’s asshole I was at the Rogue West. It was fifty-cent-PBR-in-a-can night and I was working on getting tight when a friend showed up and told me that Wayne “The Train” was playing at a dive not too far away. So I straightened up my cowboy hat and out the door we went.

As it turns out this little show was sponsored by PBR and let me tell you those PBR girls had it going on! I scored two shirts and kept up my progress on gettin’ tight. Wayne still hadn’t come on yet and I ran in to a fellow from work and his lady. The friend I originally came with had disappeared, or maybe I had, and was nowhere to be found so I hung with Justin and his girl for the rest of the evening. When we walked in to get rowdy to some good clean country music I noticed something. I looked around as the band took the stage. I took in the whole damn crowd. I was in Phoenix, AZ and was the only bastard, at a Wayne “The Train” Hancock show wearing a cowboy hat, save the band of course. I was surrounded by, you guessed it, hipsters. Standing in that very spot, with Wayne belting out “That’s What Daddy Wants” I vowed I’d be back in God’s country, Texas that is, before the month was out! And I was. Two weeks later I packed the whole family back up and moved back to where I oughtn’t have left to begin with. (Yes that’s me and my friend Justin’s old lady at the very show I just told ya’ about!)

Some of you will understand why Mr. Hancock inspired me to move home but some of you may have been living under a rock since 1995. You see, Wayne Hancock knows what country music is supposed to sound like and he plays it like it should be. Ride isn’t any different. This is country music boys and girls. This isn’t Americana, this isn’t Southern Rock, this isn’t Alt County. Ladies and gentlemen I declare this to be pure, unadulterated country music. It is inspired in it’s simplicity and driven by just the right amount twang in Wayne’s voice. There’s not an artist on any Clear Channel station that’s worthy of cleaning up this boy’s tour bus when he’s done with it!

As smooth as Wayne ever is this album is very easy to lose yourself in. I can easily dream up a tin roof, in the rain, over a rickety porch with an ice chest full of cheap beer and put myself right on it with Ride playing on an old record player. From the thumpity thump of the stand up bass to the moaning of the sad machine everything is just right on this one. I don’t know if it’s my favorite Wayne Hancock album ever but it’s up there with the best of them. You should already know what this kid sounds like and you should already be ready to pick up this little slice of country music. But if, like I mentioned earlier, you have lived under a rock since 1995 then there’s a little something for you at the end of this post. Or you can just take my word that Ride is Essential Listening and go pick it up.

Wayne Hancock – Low Down Blues
Wayne Hancock – Deal Gone Down
Wayne Hancock – Gal From Kitchen’s Field

Wayne Hancock’s Official Website
Wayne Hancock on Facebook

It’s rare that I let a bartender I don’t know talk me in to trying a new whiskey. If I don’t know and trust them it’s likely they are just trying to get more paper out of my wallet. So the way I discovered Redbreast is a bit of an anomaly. You see I was in Austin, Texas a little over a year ago with my wife celebrating our 9th anniversary and our first time our overnight without the kids in a decade. We had gone to see Austin Lucas and ended up being able to catch Lucero the very next night. We got down to 6th street fairly early, as you do, and ended up walking around looking at random stuff and trying to decide where to drink. I ended up settling on Bull McCabe’s on Red River. I walked in, commandeered a bar stool, and waited for the barkeeps, both Irish judging by their accents, to finish whatever heated discussion they were having. It was early in the evening and there wasn’t really a crowd yet and everything felt laid back so I didn’t worry about not getting the world’s fastest service and I liked the atmosphere. When one of them came over and asked what I would be having I ordered my fallback in an unknown bar “Jameson, neat” and he replied, much to my surprise, “No ya won’t”. I nearly fell of the stool and must’ve looked like I was ready to leave. He continued, in his Irish accent “I’ve got another Irish here that I swear you’ll like better, in fact I am so sure of it that if ya don’t it’ll be free and I’ll buy your first Jameson”. At this point I figured I’d just lie about whatever he poured and get myself two free shots. (I never said I was a proud man.) He poured me a shot of Redbreast while telling me it was a 12 year pure pot still. While I knew what that meant what I didn’t know is what I had in store. He handed me the shot and I took it, like a man I might add. The next thing I knew my mouth betrayed me. Whereas I had planned to lie and get the free shots, as I mentioned above, what I did was say “That’s fucking good, gimme another” and so he did and I paid for my shots. In the end he bought my first for me anyway but I didn’t have a swallow of Jameson in that bar. Ever since that night I have extolled the virtues of Redbreast. It occurred to me the other that I hadn’t, in fact, extolled those virtues here and that I damn well should. So here goes…

First I think an explanation of “pure, or single, pot still” is in order in case we have some uninformed drinkers out there. Single pot still, to use the more modern vernacular, is made from a mash of malted barley and unmalted or green barley, usually in a 60% to 40% ratio which differentiates it from single malt which, as the name suggests, contains only malted barley. All Irish single pot still whiskeys are distilled three times whereas most single malt whiskeys are distilled twice. I believe that, as of this writing, Redbreast is the only easily obtainable single pot still available in the US.

Redbreast is a very rich whiskey with a lot of character. It is not as smooth as some other Irish whiskeys I have tried, and believe you me that’s a few, but the lack of smoothness plays to my tastes. Whiskey should have a bit of a bite but with that bite it should deliver a good flavor to go with it. Part of the character comes from the fact it’s aged in sherry casks so the usual vanilla flavors you get in a whiskey, which come from aging in oak if you wanted to know, are enhanced quite a bit. This is a sweet whiskey overall with enough of a bite to let you know that are drinking whiskey but not enough of a bite to make you want to pour something hideous in to it (water, coke, sour, and so on) to dilute the flavor. It’s in a slightly higher price range than Jameson but well worth the extra 10-15 a bottle. If you are a whiskey drinker then you should try Redbreast for sure. While it’s not my house whiskey it replaces Jameson if I am out of the house and can find a bar that has it in stock.

If it means anything, that party I had last year, with Revolt 45, Austin Lucas, and Micah Schnabel, wasn’t all that huge and we killed off 8 whole bottles of the stuff. Everyone I have talked to, that likes whiskey, has really enjoyed it and one honest to God Scotsman exclaimed “Why that’s as good as Glenmorangie” but ya can’t trust Stevie all that much, his taste in booze was, after all developed in Scotland.

Austin Lucas, perennial 9B favorite, wants to record a new album. He wants to record a new album with none other than long time 9B darlings Glossary as his backing band! If you have seen these two touring together then you know exactly how epic this could be! If you haven’t then I will assume that you are an invalid who is housebound because if you have turned down an opportunity to see these two together when you were physically able to do so then you should just go hang yourself right now! But I digress…

Now I know each and every one of you out there are salivating at the possibilities that this record holds. You are probably wondering “What more could I ask for?” And, really, what more could you ask for? Well I am here to tell you! You could ask for a chance to be an integral part of making this record happen! You see being an artist and touring powerhouse doesn’t always line the pockets of these folks that provide the soundtrack for our whiskey soaked endeavors. What Austin needs right now is your financial support. He is trying to raise 5k to pay for all the studio bits of this album and he’s already halfway there. It ain’t gonna take much to push this over the top folks!

This one is a little different than most of the Kickstarters we post in that Austin and company aren’t offering the album as part of the tiers. I asked Austin about this and it’s because they’ll be shopping it around and don’t know who’s going to release so they aren’t making promises that might bite them in the ass later. That said, the tiers are pretty damn awesome, I mean for fifty bucks you get his whole damn catalog to date and more. There is no real excuse not to click the link and help make sure this album gets made!

Austin’s Website
Austin on Facebook
Austin on Twitter