Cody Cannon

So it would be forgiving of you if you expected things to be a little different this year when the guys with the celebrated producers Dave Cobb and Mud. Driven by larger-than-life appearances from innumerable street scenes,'Mud' finds the bands' glowing guitar, soulful singing and unquenchable hook to reach new levels of song writing and musicality.

The five founder members of the group - Cody Cannon on leads and Guitar, Cody Tate and John Jeffers on Guitars, Gary Brown on Basses and Jeff Hogg on Percussion - expanded their sounds with Fiddler/Keyboarder Jon Knudson and Drummer Tony Kent, both now full-time members.

"I think it really did help our sounds and it makes the whole thing more versatile," Cannon states. Rooted in the East Texas reddish mud for the first time, Cannon, Jeffers and Tate played together for the first time before completing their early line-up with the additions of Hogg and Brown (Cannon's real cousin).

Based on their 2008 début Road Of Life", they created an angry community of fans in the area, and with their 2011 sequel Firewater" they took first place in the Texas Music Charts. But it was Early Morning Shakes that brought to the outside where Texas already knew.

It broke the top 10 of the Billboard country chart, a notable achievement for a wild, independant group, and a proof of their strict working ethics in THE DY and an infinite range of passions and drives. Escquire named them "the true fucking deal," while Country Weekly said they "combine fat Northern style Latin style with rural song writing and Texasrit for something quite unique," and Playboy named them "the new evil guys of countrymusic.

Despite their fast paced profiles and increasing line-up, the group found that they could continue exactly where they stopped when they came back to the studios for 'Mud'. "When it comes to making sound, Dave has a relaxed approach, and that suits our way of working.

He has the same kind of eye as ours and the same kind of visions for how the song should be. "How the musical score is, is a rough, visceral emotional: proud, believing, desire, despite. "Frogman ", co-authored with Rich Robinson of the Black Crowes, follows a south man half way around the globe as he risked his lives to protect liberty and combat Middle East terrorism as a Navy Seal, and the Darrell Scott co-writer "Trailer We Call Home" finds much more beautiful in easy things and concludes: "Times get tough yet loves is strength / Here in this trailer we call home.

" "Wherever you come from and where you were raised, your musical influence is very strong," says Cannon. "We' re not going to the studios as a group with a pre-conceived notion. Of course, it's strongly inspired by countrymusic ("My first album was'The Pressur Is On' / Ain't it funny how your live can be changed with a song" Cannon is singing on "Hank"), but the group writes everything from Alan Jackson and Waylon Jennings to Led Zeppelin and Nirvana as inspirations.

"While " Some Of Your Love ' channeled old-school souls, the light, powerful horn of " Lightning Bugs And Rain " flirted with Rolling Stones, and " Good Ole' Day " captured a disassembled, folkloric atmosphere as the whole crew was sitting in a round dance and performing together on stage. All of this corresponds to what Cannon perhaps best described as "no gimmicks, no fucking rocks and rolls".

" "What we used to record this song was also very important in terms of the sound," he added. "So Dave has these astonishing old amplifiers and we did everything to record it for the first as well. They have this kind of musical experience in their hands, and it runs off them as natural as a source that feeds a stream.

Whilst a disc that is so good is certain to raise its (lonely) star higher than ever before, you can be sure that in the near future your triumph will still not change this group. You make proud musicians who celebrate where they come from and give a good feeling to them.