The Yayhoos - Put Down The Hammer (2006)

AMade up of three singer/songwriters -- Dan Baird (Georgia Satellites), Eric Ambel (the Del Lords, Eric Ambel & Roscoe's Gang), Terry Anderson (Woods), and one secret weapon, Keith Christopher (Billy Joe Shaver) -- the Yayhoos set out to take over the world in 1995. Unfortunately, it didn't quite work out that way. After a brief Southern tour with Drivin' N' Cryin' on which the band played a greatest-hits set, the boys wrote a batch of swaggering rock songs to shop around. In 1996, they toured Europe and the U.S. in support of Baird's Buffalo Nickel, and several compilation tracks followed ("California" on East Side Story, "Highway Junkie" on Rig Rock Deluxe, and "Tumblin' Dice" with Johnny Copeland on Paint It Blue: Songs of the Rolling Stones). The major labels' response was that three singers (they had four, actually) in one band was too many; also, grown men with facial hair who play rock & roll are not exactly MTV fare. The Yayhoos released Fear Not the Obvious in 2001. Five years later they released Put the Hammer Down and continued to tour.