Smooth as Tennessee Whiskey

The Doghouse at Ole Red welcomed Tennessee Whiskey, the Christ Stapleton tribute band. The band was smooth as strawberry wine and put on quite an engaging performance on May 6. Chadwick Cook, Clay Wise Christian Sly and Tull Rae came together for a fantastic collaboration.

Every band member sings and plays multiple instruments. They aren’t always a band, sometimes they perform solo shows all over Texas. Cook said that he found his” Stapleton” voice by covering bands such and Pantera, Boyz 2 Men and of course, The Doghouse’s own, Blake Shelton.

Sly has written for Sony, DisneyandABCandtraveled all around the world including USO tours. He and Wise started with the band Frolic and have played many gigs all over the Dallas metroplex for 24 years.

Cook is from Arlington, Texas and began his music and singing interest in his youth when a childhood friend was a musician that wanted to pursue building a youth band at church. All through high school, he played in many different bands.

Later, the band broke up and led to the current tribute band.Asthememberscontinued played together, patrons kept requesting more Chris Stapleton songs. That led him to learn more songs to share and became the Chris Stapleton Tribute.

Cook shared childhood memories of living down the street from Darell “Dimebag” Abbott. The former guitarist for Pantera. He would rollerblade over to Abbott’s home looking for advice and lessons for the song Cemetery Haze. Many years later, Vinnie (Vincent) Abbott, Darrell’s brother recognized Cook at a local bar singing karaoke. That led them to reminiscing every time they saw each other.

Tennessee Whiskey played many Stapleton songs, a handful from other artists,andthecrowdseemed to love each song. Although Saturday night included some severe storms in Southern Oklahoma and did not exactly roll out a welcome mat for travelers, Tennessee Whiskey said they look forward tocomingbackrealsoon and judging by the fantastic performance one can expect the invite will be real soon.