Country Lips

Sort of like the Wu-Tang, Country Lips ain’t nothing to fuck with. The original gang of nine outlaws formed years ago in Seattle around a shared ethos of booze, badassery and countrified rock and roll in the tradition of George Jones, Johnny Cash and the Flying Burrito Brothers. They now number seven, powered by the electric guitars and vocals of Hamilton Boyce and Trevor Pendras, who dabbles at a Mexican norteño singer. Sex symbol Alex Leake croons and plays acoustic guitar, Austin “Sheriff” Jacobsen plays bass, Jonah Byrne plays fiddle, Miles Burnett plays drums and Kenny “Keyz” Aramaki tickles the ivories. Their 10-inch vinyl Touched debuted April 8, 2012. A full-length follow-up is due in August. -

"The 3 Best Seattle Shows of the Week...Everything from upbeat, honky tonk jams to slow-dance worthy Country ballads from a Seattle eight-piece." -

Outlaw country is making a resurgence, and Seattle collective Country Lips are tearing up local venues with their own brand of party country that pays homage to greats like Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard. The robust and rowdy nine-piece comprised of Kenny Aramaki, Tom Beecham, Hamilton Boyce, Sarah Brown, Miles Burnett, Joanah Byrne, Austin “Sheriff” Jacobsen, Alex Leake, and Trevor Pendras apparently put on a hell of a live show, and their 10-inch vinyl or 13 track digital titled Touched is like its own afterparty filled with honky tong, twang and stomping rhythm. As a testament to their increasing popularity and prowess, Country Lips recently played the New Year’s Eve show at one of Seattle’s premiere venues, The Crocodile. Check out this rollicking band on their Bandcamp site or on KEXP’s latest podcast, Vol. 340. -

The highlights: Country Lips’ bar band perfection. Packing six (correction: seven(!)) handsome young gentlemen on stage (including three guitarists), their covers of country greats like George Jones got fans at the front dancing enthusiastically. The south-of-the-border flare of their original numbers belied the flag-blazoned bass, shirts, and stage draped with patriotic symbolism. They’re a fun, tight party band for the hat-and-boots set. -

There isn’t a plethora out there on the wide open spaces of the internet about the wild Seattle band Country Lips, so here’s a bit of detail: the 7-piece band sounds like a whiskey-infused, shack-swaying barn party. The staple of their music is their fast moving fingers on violin, guitar and keys, accompanied by vocals sounding like reeds bending in open air. Fresh off an April 26 Folklife Pre-Festival party at The Tractor Tavern, Country Lips are poised for more live shows in Seattle, with one slated for May 26 at The Crocodile with The Dusty 45’s and a gig at Capitol Hill Block Party July 26. With a new full-length record in the works slated for “sometime this year”, the band, already known for their rowdy performances, recently came in to KEXP for a raucous set live on Swingin’ Doors with Don Slack. -

This is the country-party band of 2012. Everywhere I go they turn up. I randomly DJ a friends wedding, and there they are as the musical guests. My brother puts out a record, and they top the bill of his album release. I wander back into the Tractor at Reverb, and there they are whipping the crowd into a frenzy. They’re ones to watch, folks. -

Country music that melds the blues-‘y’ feel of back woods with hopped up rhythmic elements of rockabilly and, more than anything, the rugged honky tonk sounds of 1970s era “Outlaw” artists. -

Pretty damned similar to each other, that's for sure. Built like a pipe. I'm gonna go with 34-30-32. - The Stranger, Emily Nokes and Bree Mckenna

"This band is surely going somewhere, or more precisely, going strait to my heart and my liver... These kids brought the roadhouse down with classic country tunes... songs like "Behind Closed Doors" and "On the Road Again" sounded as good as I've ever had the privilege of hearing them." - Andy Kelly - Andy Kelly

"It’s wandering, jangled porch music, drifting steadily along like stretched-cotton cirrus clouds. Music to enjoy, not to overthink—music that touches on Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, and the Stones’ strummier numbers. It’s twangy and fitting for listening to in a field or in a truck bed full of hay." - Trent Moorman - The Stranger, Trent Moorman

"Oh, and trust me, it's some pure country fried gold." - Kelly O - The Stranger, Kelly O

It’s been so warm in Seattle lately, it almost feels like the city has picked up and moved to the south. And one of our favorite things about the south (other than good BBQ and Shiner Bock) is honest-to-goodness, whiskey-soaked country music.

Even though tonight’s band isn’t really from the south, they sure sound like the real thing. From their cowboy hats to their twangy croons, Country Lips will make you forget you’re actually in Washington. Their repertoire includes upbeat, honky tonk jams to slow-dance worthy Americana ballads. They will be preceded by Jemez Mountain Hawkz and Ole Tinder.

So head on down to the Sunset Saloon (err, Tavern), crack a cold tallboy, and get ready to do-si-do the night away. - SEA Live Music,

"Country Lips' bar band perfection. Packing [seven] handsome young gentlemen on stage (including three guitarists), their covers of country greats like George Jones got fans at the front dancing enthusiastically. The south-of-the-border flare of their original numbers belied the flag-blazoned bass, shirts, and stage draped with patriotic symbolism. They're a fun, tight party band for the hat-and-boots set." - Julia Mullen Gordon - Seattle Weekly, Julia Mullen Gordon

...with this tattoo somebody showed me at around 3:17 a.m. at a party Saturday night at the Hong Kong Apartments in the International District. How fucked up do you have to be to waltz into a tattoo shop and ask them to give you a horse wearing overalls and drinking a jug of whiskey while standing next to a cow that's smoking a joint? Somebody tell me! - The Stranger, Kelly O

"...a jangly iteration of country music that melds the blues-‘y’ feel of back woods with hopped up rhythmic elements of rockabilly, and, more than anything, the rugged honky tonk sounds of 1970s era 'Outlaw' artists" - Julie Cochran - SSG Music, Julie Cochran

"Country Lips both on stage and by the bonfire distinguished themselves as energetic performers." - Josh Lovseth - Sound On Sound, Josh Lovseth

Country Lips can squeeze my nips-KELLY O - The Stranger, Kelly O

Country Lips have not-so-quietly built a reputation as the most rock-and-roll country band in town" - Keegan Hamilton - Seattle Weekly, Keegan Hamilton

The Country Lips: This is the country-party band of 2012. Everywhere I go they turn up. I randomly DJ a friends wedding, and there they are as the musical guests. My brother puts out a record, and they top the bill of his album release. I wander back into the Tractor at Reverb, and there they are whipping the crowd into a frenzy. They're ones to watch, folks. Chris Kornelis - Seattle Weekly, Chris Kornelis

(Tractor) Country music gets a bad rap, and it's mostly the fault of goody two-shoes like Keith Urban and Garth Brooks. I mean, back in the day, country was full of bad boys (and if you've never read George Jones's memoir, I Lived to Tell It All, you really should—that man was an animal!). Seattle's Country Lips sound and play more like classic country's raucous and rowdy boys—and their live shows are becoming legendarily wild. It's hard to stand still when eight-plus members are bringin' the foot-stompers. Country Lips are putting the party back in the original party music. Somebody had to do it. It's not always about tears falling in your beer. KELLY O - The Stranger, Kelly O

Many, many years before the likes of Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley, and Blake Shelton donned 10-gallon hats and began crooning about blue jeans and cheesy romance, country was the genre of choice for drunkards, rebels, and rockers. Seattle’s own Country Lips pay homage to that proud tradition, cranking out debauched ballads with slurred-speech choruses that would make Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard proud. The eight-piece band has a reputation for rowdiness (as should any roots country revivalists worth their weight in Jack Daniels), which ought to make for some lively pre-Christmas eve festivities. With Rollin Hazards. KEEGAN HAMILTON - Seattle Weekly, Keegan Hamilton

If the Maldives are the Band of Seattle’s thriving Americana scene, then Country Lips are its Byrds. True to their forerunners, these scruffy musicians look as though they could consume a fifth of Jack in one sitting, not recommend a juice cleanse instead. If the two bands toured together, they’d need a train (a la Festival Express) to fit their combined 39 members (only a slight exaggeration), and if they decided to team up onstage for an encore, they’d need another stage. Challenging logistics be damned, this colossal local pairing really needs to happen. Meantime, you could do far worse than to catch the Lips alone at a bar the Byrds probably hung out in once or twice. With Contraband Countryband. MIKE SEELY - Seattle Weekly, Mike Seely

My earliest memory of country music is the two-sizes-too-small cap-sleeved T-shirt my aunt Roach used to wear that proudly stated “Conway Twitty Can Squeeze My Titty.” It made her boobs look huge, bouncy, and amazing. I used to watch her sweep the kitchen of our summer cottage and dream of the day when I’d grow older and get my own big, bouncy boobies. Country music was BLARING at every turn on those summer cabin days—Conway, Willie, Waylon, Johnny, Merle, Patsy, and Loretta. I hated it all. I cringed at everything but that T-shirt. I begged my mom to play Duran Duran. It never happened. All the adults ever wanted to do was sit around the campfire, arm in arm, singing “Put Another Log on the Fire.” Remember that song? The “Male Chauvinist National Anthem” covered by many and written by Shel Silverstein, author of Where the Sidewalk Ends? “Put another log on the fire/Cook me up some bacon and some beans/And go out to the car and change the tire/Wash my socks and sew my old blue jeans.” I secretly loved the song but cursed them for always singing it.

Since then I (sort of) got my boobies, I’ve listened to thousands and thousands of country songs, and one day I suddenly realized (don’t tell my mom!) that I love country—especially the gritty, outlaw breeds. I hum “Put Another Log on the Fire” whenever I see flames. Tom Waits references wood in his song “Poncho’s Lament”—”So I’ll throw another log onto the fire/Now I’ll admit I’m a lousy liar.”

Baby-faced Seattle nine-piece Country Lips cover the Waits classic on Touched, a five-song 10-inch record, and their first release. It’s the only cover of the five songs, all of which are completely on the right track. Are they as full of energy and fire as the Lips’ live sets, which have thus far mostly rocked rowdy house parties and dive bars? No. But are they solid cuts that will put these country bumpkins on the Seattle music map and beyond? HELL YES. Touched makes me think they’ll be around for a long, long time. Those unpolished vocals singing songs about whiskey, angels, and guns—and backed by rowdy violin, mandolin, and a whole shitload of guitars—are something this one-horse town needs more of. I think they should make a T-shirt that says “Country Lips Can Squeeze My Nips”—but, hey, that’s just me. -