"Among Top Ten Live NYC acts of 2003" -TIME OUT NEW YORK MAGAZINE "Among Top Five Nashville live concerts of 2000." -ALL THE RAGE "The best American music being made today." -JASON "and the Scorchers" RINGENBERG "..the last great Rock and Roll frontman." -JELLO BIAFRA (of the Dead Kennedys) about Col. J.D. Wilkes "Proof positive entertainment was born in America!" -RAY CONDO of the Ricochets "This quartet create a gloriously exhilarating collision of full tilt blues, swamp voodoo and hillbilly rock...intoxicating energy and intensity" -Q "The maddest, baddest, most outrageous band in America...a rockabilly version of the Sex Pistols" -NEWS OF THE WORLD "En vild, rojig och stompig korsning av country, rock-n-roll och blues. Jag ger dem ett extra plus for att de har munspel i sattningen." -COUNTRYROCKSPECIALLISTEN.SE "Shack*Shakers are the ultimate in demented cowpunk - a moonshine fuelled whirlwind of brutalized rockabilly and warped irreligious imagery. Johnny Cash would no doubt of approved. and so should you." 4/5 -KERRANG "Top 20 of 2003." -THE TENNESSEAN, Nashville

"It's like having SLAYER open up for you every night. Best damn band & front man in America." -HANK WILLIAMS III "..the most dynamic performing white band we've seen in years." -ROGER NABOR, Grand Emporium KC.MO. "(Col. J.D.)'s 'The Killer' of the blues harmonica." - "The Rev. Horton Heat" JIM HEATH "...a harmonica player that I swear is the reincarnation of Slim Harpo and his name is Col. J.D. Wilkes and he plays like no one else" -Andy Grigg, -REAL BLUES MAGAZINE "Best Frontman in Nashville (2002 vote)" -NASHVILLE SCENE

"PANDELIRIUM" REVIEWS | 2006

“Pandelirium is an excellent album” –PUNK PLANET “Brazen, ramshackle energy” –PASTE MAGAZINE "...a harmonica player that I swear is the reincarnation of Slim Harpo and his name is Col. J.D. Wilkes and he plays like no one else" Andy Grigg, -REAL BLUES MAGAZINE “Voracious Nashville trio Legendary Shack*Shakers dips its long, callous-laden digits deep into the wellspring of Southern music, dredging up a market-fresh mix of blues, rockabilly, country, bluegrass, and gospel.” –AUSTIN CHRONICLE “Clocking in at just under 33 minutes, and never dull for a tick, Pandelirium takes its listeners on a boozy, freaky supercharged thrill ride.” –AMPLIFIER MAGAZINE “The Shack*Shakers’ CD should come with an advisory sticker. Their high-octane, four-on-the-floor, balls-to-the-wall brand of musical mayhem distills everything that’s ever been considered dangerous in American music—rockabilly, punk, honky-tonk country, blues, surf, guttersnipe rock—and serves it up in 12 bracing shots….It’s extreme music, and if it’s this ferocious on disc, their live shows must be unbelievable.” –HARP MAGAZINE “Melding polka punk-oompha-phas with dark vaudevillian piano lines and swinging rockabilly guitars (while still leaving ample space for JD Wilkes sweaty preacher hallelujahs and bluesy harmonica playing), Pandelirium celebrates the chiaroscuro of a Southern Gothic life. This twisted carnival of testifying will make a believer out of anyone.” —CMJ “With this album, the band shows off their ingenuity when it comes to creating their own flavor of music…but still remembering to exercise their punk demons.” –OUTBURN MAGAZINE “Cloaked in the sound and imagery of American and European gothic, they dig up the skeletons of our ancestors and take them dancing in punk clubs, an exercise as humorous as it is dark… Eastern romanticism courts Western punk” -THE ORLANDO SENTINEL

“Wilkes is often (and deservedly) recognized as one of Nashville’s most energetic, showmanship-inclined frontmen and he proves why time and again on Pandelirium. He tears through the rollicking heavy metal/bluegrass/Celtic mash-up ‘Ichabod’ like a man possessed” –POP MATTERS “Band leader J.D. Wilkes is a one-man tour de force, coming on like a wild-eyed Southern preacher with God on his mind and the devil in his pants. Don’t miss Th’ Legendary Shack*Shakers” –SALT LAKE CITY TRIBUNE “Th’ Legendary Shack*Shakers are on the rise….armed with a terrific new album, Pandelirium” –WESTWORD “…their playing is so unhinged, their writing so imaginative [and] their weaving of musical styles is so accomplished…” –THE WASHINGTON POST “Front man Col. J.D. Wilkes has long been recognized as one of Nashville’s most creative and energetic performers, and time and again on Pandelirium he shows why he’s earned those accolades. From the elastic vocals of ‘No Such Thing’ to the bullfrog croak of ‘Bottom Road’ and lounge-y croon of the demented polka ‘Gipsy Valentine,’ Wilkes is one versatile singer, and bassist Mark Robertson and guitarist David Lee more than keep up.” –THE HARTFORD COURANT “Nashville’s Legendary Shack Shakers are a genre unto themselves…From the opening salvo of ‘Ichabod,’ through the Tom Waits-on-acid ‘Iron Lung Oompah,’ musicianship and melody stand toe-to-toe with all the aural hijinx. And when Wilkes lets his solo rip on the razor sharp ‘Thin The Herd,’ you can almost hear Angus Young contemplating a switch from guitar to harp…this is the real thing.” –RHINO RECOMMENDS “‘Ichabod!’ is insanely energetic, with a beat that suggests such high-powered styles as ska, punk, rockabilly and klezmer. The rest of Pandelirium carries on with that sort of manic intensity.” –THE ASPEN TIMES “Leave it to Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers to transfer rock ‘n’ roll’s danger and energy from guitars and basses to glockenspiels and accordions.” –THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE “Pandelirium is a most fitting coinage to describe what Th’ Legendary Shack*Shakers stir up on their third full-length album….punkishly intense collision of blues, country, rock and even polka.” –THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER “[Wilkes] sings like ‘Where’s the Devil...When You Need Him?’ as he shakes and growls like a young Iggy Pop” -SAN DIEGO CITY BEAT

"BELIEVE" REVIEWS | 2005

"It shakes like a nutcracker...play loud, hit the barn and boogie, baby." -TIME OUT "A proper hardcore hoedown" -NUTS "'Believe' fairly explodes out of the speakers...driven by a rock-solid rhythm, boundless energy...(and) mind-blowing lyrics rife with Biblical references and ruminations of life, death, sin and redemption." -BILLBOARD “(A) scorching second album…the band successfully recreates the raw, visceral drama of their vaudevillian stage shows. In fact, Believe is packed with enough seismic, moonshine-fueled punk-meets rockabilly groves to shift tectonic plates.” -MOJO “A non stop riot of blitzkreiging barndances, meltdown polka’s and black hearted blues. The devil’s music, straight from hell.” 5/5 -THE GUARDIAN "It's a howling at the moon mini masterpiece" 4/5 "Buy It CD of the week" -DAILY MIRROR "They resemble (in appearance and sound) a glorious cross between the Deliverance and Grease movies, and that really does work a lot better than you'd think. The song's from the new "Believe" record are foot-tappingly brilliant" 8/10 -METAL HAMMER (live review) “Anyone who believes all country is boring should get a load of this lunacy…manic frontman Colonel JD Wilkes leads his blues and rockabilly band leads his band into an inspired trip into trailer trash honky tonk.” 4/5 -DAILY STAR "These genuine Nashville renegades pump out a hotwire blend of rockabilly, punk, country, blues and rock...a filthy, lowdown surprise that demands checking out." 4/5 -THE INDEPENDENT "You just can't pigeonhole (Believe). The songs are rocking and the band kick arse. Cracking stuff." -TOTAL GUITAR "A journey into the heart of the Deep South...if you want to visit a place where the old wildcat sound refuses to die, then look no further than this record." -TIMES EYE

“One hell of a rockin’ album…Essentially, The Shack*Shakers successfully manage to pull together a variety of influences and styles to create a NEW take off from the blues.” –BLUES MATTERS MAGAZINE "Thrilling, hell-for-leather mixture of punk energy, driven blues, hoedown country and rocking boogie...If you can sit still to this, it means you're already dead" -RIP & BURN "Th' Legendary Shack*Shakers are good. How good? About as good as a hillbilly incarnation of The Cramps, or The Clash if they had consisted of four Paul Simenons" -SCOTSMAN (live review) "Near indescribable rockabilly/country/metal hybrid from a wonderfully barking collective...bands who call themselves "eclectic" should be barred from doing so again, until they hear an album where any second of music is completely different from the one which preceded it" 8/10 -TELETEXT "wacky, invigorating music. They are one of the best live bands you'll ever see. The band are ferociously good players...Believe? I believe I do" 4/5 -WHAT'S ON "Colonel JD Wilkes is his name...when it comes to rabid leaping about and superhuman feats of harmonica playing, there is currently no one to touch him. The ultimate party band? Quite Possibly" 4/5 -KERRANG LIVE REVIEW