Reviews

No Depression – Live Review

June 9, 2017 — Leave a comment

Just came across this great live review in the Roots Music Journal No Depression from our show at Music Box Supper Club in Cleveland last September with Sarah Borges. Many thanks to Jay Minkin for coming out the show to see us and for the great article! We hope to return to Cleveland again soon! Click here for the full review.

Based out of Detroit, Shepard and lead guitar/lap steel player Lawrence Daversa had released their debut self-produced, self-titled album in 2015 are one of their city’s new musical darlings. Currently writing for their second album to be released this spring, tonight’s show included Ozzie Andrews on bass and Jim Faulkner on drums giving the live performance a little extra kick. The band opened with “Phonograph” and “Red Wine” having Andrews on banjo bass before going to a traditional electric. The chemistry of Shepard’s vocals mixed with Daversa’s twangy guitar chords and solos sounded wonderful during their eleven song set which included “Songbird”, “Rollercoaster”, “Melody” and “Coal”. Highlights included the redemption song “Straight and Narrow” and the closing number “Sidewinder” about a rattlesnake which began with Shepard’s acoustic guitar before exploding with the full band. Keep an eye on these two as their stock may rise come 2017. – Jay Minkin, No Depression – Sept 22, 2016

For the Country Record Review!

August 13, 2015 — Leave a comment

Many thanks to Vickye Fisher at For the Country Record for the great review of our album! You can read the full review here.

“If you were wondering where the roots and grit of country music had gone, you’ll find it in this album. There is a fulfilling darkness and aching quality about this record that falls in line with the genre at its best.” – Vickye Fisher, For the Country Record 8/11/15

Rock and Roll Junkie Review!

July 3, 2015 — 5 Comments

Many thanks to Rock and Roll Junkie for the amazing review! It is a thoroughly entertaining read, and we very much appreciate the kind words!

Click here for the full review on Rock and Roll Junkie – July 3, 2015

“The twang of both the guitar and the voice takes me to a swampy place I want to lie down and die in. Again, it’s making me happier than I have been in a while. To feel the agony in music is to feel what it is to be alive. When music can make you feel alive, then it is doing the job of saints. The Whiskey Charmers bring that dark, brooding sense you get when you enter a scary motel for the first time. This sound makes you want to drink more whiskey, even though you know full well it’s the worst idea you’ve had all night. The vocals of Carrie Shepard cut at you like a swiping switch-blade, yet rock you to sleep at the same time. The cutting guitar riffage from Lawrence Daversa walks you down a foggy beach only to find a bloody plane crash at its reaches. You feel the pain. You want to feel the pain. The pain has you flipping the record over and over so you can get at more of it.” – Rock and Roll Junkie – July 3, 2015

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Three Chords and the Truth UK

May 6, 2015 — Leave a comment

Many thanks to Three Chords and the Truth UK for the wonderful review of our album! Read the full article here

“The duo of Carrie Shepard and Lawrence Daversa guide the band’s direction which leaves a trail of impurity free groove in its wake. Catch yourself in the headlights of their enticing tunes and total absorption is impossible to avoid. Whether it’s the glorious sultry vocals of Carrie snaking around the hazy songs that ache with magnetic appeal, or Lawrence’s driving lead guitar decorating each track, this album runs on a full tank throughout its 38 minute journey”.- Three Chords and The Truth UK 5/6/15

Americana Roots UK

April 9, 2015 — 1 Comment

Many thanks to Americana Roots UK for the kind words about our album!

The Whiskey Charmers
This is a tremendous debut album by a Detroit, Michigan based trio who bring a new slant to the normal clichéd view of the music that comes from that area, with nine tremendous songs of what is becoming known as ‘country gothic.’ The drumming is far more than just a foundation on this sparse haunting album of great beauty with the gorgeous guitar sounds of Lawrence Daversa and the stunning beauty of Carrie Shepard’s vocals on these mainly Shepard penned songs of loss, despair and tragedy. To use an oversimplification, if you like the Cowboy Junkies and Rachel Brooke, there is every likelihood you will love this gorgeous album.
Full Review Here

 

 

Pure M Magazine Review: All the Fun, No Hangover: The Whiskey Charmers

March 8, 2015

Many thanks to Jonathan Monahan from Pure M Magazine, Ireland’s Music, Art and Culture Magazine for the great review of our album! You can read the full article on their website here!

I’ve heard all sorts of what could be called ‘weirdness of influence’ on this album. There are glimpses of Fleetwood Mac, Jefferson Airplane, and even a bit of Nancy Sinatra in Sidewinder, as well as the easier to link country influences few of our readers will ever have heard – and that’s just the vocal. Carrie Shepard has a voice you’d leave your wife and eleven children for in a heartbeat. The tone of it is like a short of Jack Daniels drunk slowly and neat: warm the whole way down, before it shoots back up your spine to the pleasure centre of your brain, followed by a dark, liquid caramel chaser. She had me from the first note of Elevator to the last bar of Waltz. I’d drop everything and book a flight to Michigan just to become a full-time stalker if I knew it included a dental plan.

The guitar is at its haunting best in Vampire, an account of a sordid night with a deathly white stranger and the creeping hypnosis that gets you caught up in that sort of thing. Lawrence Daversa plays the blues along every nerve of your body, plucking, sliding, and vibrato-ing to a tingling climax – before you ask, yes, it feels odd to say that about another man, but the music is just inescapably sexy when combined with Carrie’s sultry voice. It takes two to tango, and this proves that, just maybe, that platitude can stretch across more than just dance and euphemism. – Jonathan Monahan, Puremzine – March 8th, 2015

Country Music People Review

March 2, 2015

Many thanks to Duncan Warwick from Country Music People in the UK for the great review of our new album in their March 2015 issue!

“The Whiskey Charmers are from Detroit but you’d think it would be more likely be Arizona.Formed in 2013, they say their music is hard to classify and they’re not kidding. Not what you’d traditionally call country, and certainly not traditional country, rather it is a blend of Chris Isaak and early Calexico that is strong on laid-back South-western rhythms, with an eerie and sexy quality that quickly got under my skin.” – Duncan Warwick, Country Music People

Read the full article here

Metrotimes article: Acoustic country trio the Whiskey Charmers play by their own rules

November 13, 2014

Many thanks to music journalist Brian Palmer and Metrotimes for yesterdays article on our band, titled “Acoustic country trio the Whiskey Charmers play by their own rules, no censorship allowed”

“The Whiskey Charmers just might have the most appropriate name ever. For starters, the band plays a brand of country, folk, and Americana that’s perfectly suited to dimly lit whiskey bars, where a few shots of fire will help get you in the right frame of mind. And the trio will charm the pants off you with their moody aesthetics and clever wordplay. Two big reasons this band — which formed last year — is starting to gain some traction is that they march to the beat of their own creative drum, and they don’t pull any punches.”

– Brian Palmer, Metrotimes 11/12/14

Click here for the full article

Thank you Brett Callwood of The Metro Times for the nice review!

January 24, 2014

The Whiskey Charmers Purr to a Chomping Few at O’mara’s- Metro Times by Brett Callwood- 1/24/14

It’s at times like this that you just want to get up and hug the band. On Thursday evening at O’Mara’s, a sort of Irish-themed restaurant in Berkley, Carrie Shepard and Lawrence Daversa of the Whiskey Charmers are pouring their hearts our on the mini-stage while, in front of them and separated by a partition wall, barely interested customers eat their chicken.

Of course, that’s par for the course if you take this sort of gig, and the two musicians are happy to just purr through their tunes. But still, as an onlooker, it seems like a waste. Just look up from your plate for a second, guys. Chew while you view. There’s something beautiful going on.

Much like fellow locals the Blueflowers, the Whiskey Charmers play poetic, mildly gothic folk rock. Daversa is skilled at allowing his guitar to compliment Shepard’s vocals, rather than overriding it. It’s a less-is-more philosophy which serves the band well, and it allows the songs to breathe.

Shepard’s singing has improved noticeably since we interviewed them about a year ago. As we said then, “The Whiskey Charmers truly create the aural equivalent of crying into a tumbler filled with bourbon, bemoaning a lost love. There’s no ice added.”

Shepard purrs through the tunes, and songs about drinking cannily come across as if they are about something far more romantic. That’s the trick, the humor, behind this music. Despite the fact that nobody else was listening, something beautiful happened at O’Mara’s, and it wasn’t (just) the drink selection.

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