Ladies and gentlemen, we have another name you should make sure to include in the mix whenever speaking about the wild resurgence of independent music shaking up mainstream country, and it’s the Southern rock and country band out of east Texas known as Whiskey Myers. Releasing their fifth record on September 27th—one of the most recent ‘super release’ days where a dizzying crush of major titles all hit the street at once—Whiskey Myers not only bested all competition with their self-titled release, they did so by a healthy margin, including the Grammy-winning Sturgill Simpson, and the mainstream-level and radio-supported Jon Pardi. In short, Whiskey Myers has arrived.

The new Whiskey Myers album released via Thirty Tigers sold 39,000 copies in pure album sales, and rose to 42,000 with streaming credits according to Billboard, which is good for #1 in country, #2 in all of music considering pure album sales, and #6 on the all-genre Billboard 200, putting Whiskey Myers in the very rare company of Blackberry Smoke, Aaron Watson, and Jason Isbell as independent artists topping the country albums charts. Tyler Childers and Sturgill Simpson have also achieved #1’s with no significant radio play, but only after signing major label deals.

The 42,000 in sales by Whiskey Myers means they sold 8,000 more copies than Jon Pardi’s new album Heartache Medication also released on September 27th, which came in with 34,000 in album sales and streaming equivalents, and charts #2 in country. Sturgill Simpson, who released his newest record Sound & Fury on the same day, came in with sales and streaming equivalents of 32,000, and is #3 in country (despite Sturgill not considering it a country record {more on this soon}). The only album that sold more physical copies than Whiskey Myers during the release week was the reissue of the landmark album Abbey Road by The Beatles. Whiskey Myers also comes in at #1 on the Current Rock Albums chart, and #2 on the overall Rock Albums chart after the Abbey Road reissue.

Granted, Whiskey Myers did receive some support from bundling live tickets with an album purchase if fans chose that option, known in in the business as a “ticket bundle.” But even then, few saw this coming (except SCM). Though Whiskey Myers has been around for over 10 years, you got the sense this new, self-titled record would be the catalyst to something bigger. Not just their music, but the band itself was featured in an episode of the Paramount Network’s original series Yellowstone starring Kevin Costner in July of 2018, causing their sales to spike and creating national and international interest in the band. Their music was featured in the Yellowstone series once again in 2019. Whiskey Myers also opened for The Rolling Stones his year on June 25th at Chicago’s Soldier Field, giving them even more exposure.

From Palestine, TX, Whiskey Myers was initially formed by Cody Cannon and guitarist John Jeffers, and was inspired early on by the music of Hank Williams Jr. and Waylon Jennings. They quickly formed a strong grassroots following in the Texas/Red Dirt scene that has gone national and international in recent years.

Whiskey Myers decided to make their new album a self-titled affair since they produced the album themselves after working with Dave Cobb on their last record Mud from 2016, and because they feel this new album embodies their sound and spirit better than ever. Frontman Cody Cannon wrote five of the fourteen tracks solo, and John Jeffers contributed three of his own. Whiskey Myers also worked with notable songwriters Brent Cobb, Adam Hood, Dave Kennedy, Aaron Raitiere, and performer Tennessee Jet on the new album. The band also solicited the services of the Godfather of Texas Country Ray Wylie Hubbard on the lead track for the record, “Die Rockin’, co written with Cody Cannon.