Bourbon & Beyond 2026 - Line 13 (The Creekers, Henrik, The Infamous Stringdusters, Amigo the Devil, Howie Day, Tonic, Cracker)

The Creekers

One Liner: Feels like legit backwoods bluegrass music
Wikipedia Genre: no Wikipedia, but this is classic bluegrass
Home: Leslie County, KY
Day: Friday

Thoughts:  Did you ever hear the band that Chris Stapleton was in before he became the all-consuming soulful guitar God that he has become?  The Steel Drivers.  This reminds me of that - straight bluegrass, a little raw and unpolished, a little simplistic in lyrics and structure of the songs (even while the individual instruments can go hard).

A six piece band with all of the usual instruments.  The banjo player is the old hand who has been playing for decades, everyone else looks 22.  Two appear to be brothers - Jagger and Ashton Bowling.  Ashton plays something called the Cajon.  I am not familiar with this thing - oh wait, sure, it's that wooden box thing that people sit on and hit with their hands at Young Life camps all around the world.  Didn't know its name.  The other interesting item from their bio is that the lead singer went to the Kentucky School of Bluegrass.  That is wild.  I want that on my resume.

One album, 2024's Pour Me in the Creek, then a 2025 EP called River Rat.  I hope their next album is named something with a Lake, and then they move up to the Sea, before finally getting to the Ocean.  I saw a clip of them playing at Two Step Inn over the weekend and they seemed just about like I would expect, a little raw but they looked like they were having fun.  Top song is called "Tennessee," with 17.7 million streams.

That sounds really good.  Great harmonies.  The old banjo player is cracking me up though with his backwards/sideways ball cap and Chucks, while he's the oldest dude in the band by 30 years.  I doubt I'd go see it, but I don't hate it.

Henrik

One Liner: 
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but I guess this is a folk pop thing?
Home: Salem County, NJ
Day: Friday

Thoughts:  He claims musical influences of Mt. Joy, Noah Kahan and Relient K.  I don't know that last one, but the Mt. Joy comparison is good, as like them, I sort of like this and then I sort of dislike it a moment later.  It is a little too poppy for me, and a little too stomp/clap leaning, and sometimes kind of Post Malone-ey (which is bad).  As with most young artists like him, he first gained notoriety on TikTok, with millions of views on his videos before he released any real music.  Some of this is also Christian music, which is even worse.  But he has definitely been prolific - tons of singles since 2021, an album with something called GRAHAM in 2024, and two albums in 2025.  Those albums don't have many streams, but one of his early singles must have struck a nerve on TikTok.  "Half of forever" has 181.5 million streams.

I'm glad they added the lyrics for when he sings "hmm mm"  I really needed to make sure I knew the lyrics to that part.  I think I had been singing it as "hm mmm" instead, which is terribly embarrassing.  "I'd give up half of forever just to be with you" is a weird lyric.  Half of forever is still forever.  So, he's not actually willing to give up anything to get your love, lady.  He is full of shit, honey.  I would not choose to see this one.

The Infamous Stringdusters

One Liner: Complex bluegrass players who love a good cover
Wikipedia Genre: progressive bluegrass, folk, country, jam band
Home: Nashville
Day: Friday

Thoughts:  I love the band name.  I have heard of these dudes over the years, but never actually listened to any of their music.  Well, now that I have witnessed, I see the light.  It is bluegrassy, but it feels like they are just a jam band who happen to have a dobro, banjo, and fiddle involved.  Feels complex, like each member is playing things just a touch more complicated than a normal bluegrass riff.

A handful of these guys studied together at Berklee College of Music in Boston, and then they moved together to Nashville.  They found a bassist from Durango, Colorado, and had to replace their founding guitarist when he left to join the Punch Brothers.  But it has all worked out, with a handful of International Bluegrass Association awards, a few Grammy nominations and one win (2018, Best Bluegrass Album).  Shockingly, they have released sixteen studio albums.  That is so much music! And their 2025 album is 30 songs/ two hours and six minutes.  Some Drake level shit right there.  Relax and make three albums, yo!  

But the funny thing is that their top tracks on Spotify are covers of other people's already famous songs - "Just Like Heaven" or "Walking on the Moon" or "Get Lucky" or Pink Floyd's "Fearless."  Those actually sound really good - "Just Like Heaven" is a great song in its own right so having it be bluegrass-jam-ified is fun.  "Gravity" from their 2017 album Laws of Gravity is their top streamer that is their own original creation.  Just over 4 million streams.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7iTCru7Umw

I mean, watching them sing and play is cool, and seeing those two kids be in love is surprisingly touching as well. Like a full-on movie in 4 minutes. Great harmonies and that banjo solo is a scorcher.

The 2025 album Songs from the Mountain is likewise outrageously long, but it is pretty fun - a lot of interesting covers tucked within the originals - John Mayer, Grateful Dead, The HIghwaymen, U2.  Probably others that I just don't recognize.  Like little Easter eggs sprinkled into the disc.

My problem now is that I pulled up a show from something called Ramble Fest last night and let it play on YouTube while I made dinner.  And this is the sort of jam that my wife will absolutely detest - overly long noodle fests and ever-more-shrill solos.  So more than likely, this is a no unless I run across something changing my mind (even if I do love the covers).

Amigo the Devil

One Liner: Very theatrical-feeling banjo folk for murdering to
Wikipedia Genre: folk
Home: Apparently in Austin now
Day: Friday

Thoughts:  I was digging on the band name, imagining some sort of Spanish take on the Grateful Dead, but instead this feels like something the most dramatic drama kid in high school created and sang to himself before taking the stage.  I was in a play in college where they would play Talking Heads' "Psycho Killer" before we went on stage, and one of the other actors would get psyched up for his time on stage by writhing around to that song in an uncomfortably manic-sensual way that still haunts me even now.  I feel like that guy might sing these songs.

Danny Kiranos is influenced by American folk, country, rock, and heavy metal, with themes of murder, death, and other dark subject matters which has led to his music being called "Dark Folk" or "Murderfolk".  Yeah.  I can hear that.  He was born in Miami, the son of a Greek father and a Spanish mother, and so his influences sprang out of the traditional music of both of those cultures.  I can hear that as well.  He is also very good with a banjo.  Which is funny, because the banjo is generally a happy time instrument, and yet here we are singing about death and murder.

He moved to California to attend the Los Angeles Film School to make horror films, dropped out to attend culinary school, and then worked in the brewing industry.  For reasons that are not clear at all, the last anecdote on Wikipedia about the guy is this: "In 2019, Mayor Steve Adler of the city of Austin, Texas announced November 16 as "Amigo the Devil Day" in the city and awarded a signed seal to Kiranos."  He apparently lives here now.  Huh.

"Hell and You" is the top tune.  31.9 million streams - quite a bit more than anything else in his catalog.

I was going to make a definitive claim that this grotto was not near Austin, but who knows.  Hear that theatric action there?  Like, this guy dances to "Psycho Killer" before he goes on stage and makes everyone else uncomfortable.  His eyes are really something.

I don't think this one is for me.  After listening through some of the albums all day, none of it is terrible or anything, it just has a theater kid vibe that I find offputting.

Howie Day

One Liner: Boring one hit wonder from 2003
Wikipedia Genre: pop rock, indie rock
Home: Bangor, Maine
Day: Friday

Thoughts:  Dammit.  Who was I thinking this would be?  I had it in my head that this was an 80's one hit wonder guy, not a 2003 one hit wonder guy.  Howard Jones!  Man, I really thought I was about to jam some NO ONE IS TO BLAME at the top of my lungs.  AND YOU WANT HER, AND SHE WANTS YOU, WE WANT EVERYOOOOOOOOOOOOOONE.

Sadly, this is an entirely milquetoast one hit wonder from 20 years later.  I recognize the hit song, but probably from like Gray's Anatomy or something.  This is "Collide" with 246.8 million streams.

I have let this guy play for about a day and a half, and now I just need to write about him so I can move on.  This is very boring music.  He's been doing it for a long time - he even had a song on the I Am Sam soundtrack back in 2001.  I love that soundtrack.  But the reviews of this guy's music are perfect - "not bad but indistinct" or "tepid and directionless."

I'll also note that he has been arrested three times - twice back in 2004 (locking a female fan in his tour bus bathroom) and 2005 (yelling at a flight crew), which he explained away as youthful indiscretion and drinking - and then again in 2018 for assault against his girlfriend.  Up yours, Howie.  I already didn't care for the music, but now you're just a dick too.

Tonic

One Liner: Another 90's one hit wonder with a few other semi-minor hits
Wikipedia Genre: alternative rock, post-grunge
Home: L.A.
Day: Friday

Thoughts:  Now we are talking.  I had this disc when it came out, although I think I have since conflated these songs with Matchbox 20.  I think those were different bands, but now that I am listening to 1996's Lemon Parade even more, I think it sounds just like even more things, such as fellow poster-dweller Vertical Horizon, or Fuel, or Collective Soul, or even Live.

The band formed in L.A., made up of two childhood friends who randomly crossed paths at a pool hall in L.A. in 1993.  They found a bass player and drummer, and originally wanted to be called Radio Flyer.  That name was apparently lame, I mean, taken, so they went with Tonic.  They were apparently relentless with gigging, doing more than 300 shows in less than two years, and signed with a label.  Lemon Parade did well, reaching platinum status, based on two singles.  "If You Could Only See" is still the top track in the catalog, but also it was Rock radio's most played song on 1997.  That is a wild stat.  237.3 million streams, so it is still going strong.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sfg6-4mBs6Y

Sure, that is a fine jangly little piece of alt rock.  I like it more once the rock and roll kicks in versus the opening bit.  I like the fuzzed out guitar.  I really do not like the lead singer's sideburns though.  The second album, 1999's Sugar, has a few songs I recognize, so they must have either been radio hits or songs I pirated vie Napster and listened to at work right after college.  "You Wanted More" sounds like the latter to me.  I like that song.  The band actually got Grammy nominations for their next album - one for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for "Take Me As I Am", and one for Best Rock Album.  I just tried that song, and it is butt.  Lost to Coldplay's "In My Place," and was also nominated with Creed's "My Sacrifice," Three Doors' Down's "When I'm Gone," and Chad Kroeger (of Nickelback) with Josey Scott's "Hero."  Pretty awful year for rock music, apparently.

If I am being honest, the nostalgia meter on this band is pretty low.  I saw them included on the poster and was like "oh, sweet, yeah they had some hits!"  And they obviously did, but I don'[t feel like they were my hits, and I don't feel like their newer music is ticking any boxes for me.  Will likely let this one slide by.

Cracker

One Liner: 
Wikipedia Genre: rock, country, grunge, punk
Home: Richmond, VA
Day: Friday

Thoughts:  But here, on the other hand, I freaking loved Cracker.  I wore out their first three albums, and especially Kerosene Hat.  I think my sister put a song from their first album on a mixtape that she gave me, which first got them on my radar.  But then when Kerosene Hat came out, they were everywhere.

But I think their combo of sounds is excellent - sort of southern rock, sort of country, sort of jangly indie rock, and with the lead singer's sneering and interesting lyrics stretching out to sew it all together.  "What the world needs now, is another folk singer, like I need a hole in my head."  "Called my mom from a payphone / I said, "I'm down to my last" / She said, "I sent you to college / Now go call your dad" / And the waitress that he married / Well, she hung up the phone / You know she never did like me / But I can stand on my own."  "I hate my generation.  Yeah."

And re-listening to those first three albums right now is making me really happy.  A lot of silliness in these songs, while the guitar rock is chugging along, and I really enjoy reminiscing about it all.  Kerosene Hat definitely had a long term slot in my CD changer in 1993/1994, and so I know these songs by heart.  Very fun.

But do I know anything about the band?  No, I do not.  Let's rectify that.  Lead singer David Lowery was also the lead singer for Camper Van Beethoven (which maybe I knew long ago, but definitely did not recall now).  When that band fell apart in 1990, he began playing around with a childhood friend guitarist, Johnny Hickman, on some new tunes and moved from California to Virginia.  They snagged some other players, got a label (I'm sure off the fame from CVB), and released Cracker in 1992.  "Teen Angst (What the World Needs Now)" spent time at #1 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart and the album did well.  11.8 million streams now.

That video is deliciously Buzz Bin/ 120 Minutes-coded.  I like the dogs attacking something in there.  A year later, they released Kerosene Hat to even more critical love.  "Low," "Get Off This," and "Eurotrash Girl" all charted, with "Low" being the big hit for sure.  94.5 million streams.

They also did a great cover of the Dead's "Loser" that I think sounds very dope.  The whole album is great - has some wacky harder rock, some great ballads, and some groovy grunge.  After that, The Golden Age came out in 1996, with less fanfare (but a single in "I Hate My Generation"), and then they kept releasing albums with less and less notice.  They still got some love, in that they had songs on the Empire Records and Clueless soundtracks during this time.  Even more strange, looking at their Spotify, many of the songs on their other albums are greyed out and unplayable.  Like, 2002's Forever has one song you can play.  Weird.  I wonder if it has something to do with Lowery suing Spotify for their music licensing practices?  Spotify is like "oh year, well no one can hear your new songs then!"

Good times - I'd love to see them play!