Band of Bumpkins

The newest name in indefinable music has just arrived, and it's drinking out of a Mason jar and spitting tobacco juice on your shoes.

Introducing the Shiners, a mighty mess of good ol' boys who are adding some bang to the twang of conventional country music. Call it roots rock or alt-country or rockabilly--whatever the genre, the band fires faster than a shotgun at a possum, cranking out cut after cut of its very own mountain music punk on the debut album, Bonnie Blue.

It's like Johnny Cash meets the Clash.

Actually, the Shiners were formed when Dirtball founders Wes and Jyl Freed hooked up with shock-rock GWAR guitarist Steve Douglas and that banjo-playing yokel from Deliverance (OK, I lied about that part). Together, they've fashioned a whiskey-soaked mix of songs that would make any Lynyrd Skynyrd fan proud.

Electric guitar meets washboard on tracks like "Night Owl" and "Los Gatos del Fuego," as a heavy Memphis drawl growls about rodeos and honky-tonks and do-it-yourself distillery. "Devil's X," the Shiners' salute to their drink of choice, sounds more like the B-52's.

Be warned. Although the Shiners aren't your run-of-the-mill country group, their cowboy hats are firmly planted on their heads and their teeth are slowly falling out of them. They may very well be the next house band at Dollywood. So, if you don't plan to listen in your pick-up while your mullet blows in the wind, you may not be interested.

But, if this still sounds like more fun than kissing your cousin, then yee-haw for the Shiners.