Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
This band has no press
Discography
Still working on that hot first release.
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
So, what do you have when you team up a virtuoso guitar player and a prolific songwriter? Whiskey Bent, that's what. Guitarist Billy Ray McClelland and songwriter Jack Wingfield started writing songs together when they were in high school in Buna, Texas. After a long separation, they are working together again in the form of Whiskey Bent.
With the ability to front a metal band and the diversity to grace a Southern Rock stage, Billy Ray is one picker than can get the job done. Idolizing Paul Stanley from Kiss as a kid and rooted with the sound of Skynyrd, he has ultimately merged a unique sound. From playing in the 80s Metal band Hired Gunz, to sharing the stage with Gerry Evans in northern Louisiana-based Southern Rock act Southern Reign, he has surely been seasoned a Rock and Roll-Southern Rock guitar phenomenon. Billy Ray says, Meeting Jack was like Jimmy Page meeting Robert Plant; we have put together music and words perfectly from the day we met. Now, being back together from a 14 year separation due to career moves and bad women, Billy Ray and Jack are stronger than ever working the proverbial cat to death with 9 lives to go. Billy is currently attending Berklee College of Music.
"Subtlety seems to be a lost art in Country music songwriting", Jack says. "There are writers who continue to elevate the genre like Billy Joe Shaver and Steve Earle, and we have to respect them and give them their due." Wingfield's story songs are filled with characters not unlike those who inhabit the worlds of Johnny Cash and Steve Earle's material. Just check out "The Day I Shot Preacher Brown" and see for yourself. "You can't tell them everything", Wingfield says, when questioned about the sometimes mysterious fates and motivations of his characters. "Too many of today's songs are spelled out for the listener. The dumbing down of Country music really has to be quelled somehow."
Keep your eyes open and your ears peeled for what Whiskey Bent has on the table and has on the way. They will truly give the world of music a twist of realism and a diverse sound. Whiskey Bent is truly a Southern Rock and Country original. Nashville won't know what hit 'em.
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