The Whiskey Charmers and Jo Serrapere – January 5, 2024

The Whiskey Charmers are a Detroit-based band led by Carrie Shepard and Lawrence Daversa. Fans have often compared their sound to riding through the desert with the top down, or the feeling of being in some lonesome smoky bar off the side of an abandoned highway, or music from a Spaghetti Western. William P Davis (Former Deputy Director of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville) says of the band, “I’ve heard a lot of good musicians. The Whiskey Charmers remind me of no one – and, to me, that is one of the best compliments an act can receive.”

Ken Capobianco, Boston Globe Music Critic described their most recent album as a “Sharply executed and evocative set of Americana rock filled with superbly arranged songs about the struggle to find connections, a sense of home, and a center in a ghost town of a world”.

The rest of their discography includes a self titled album (2015) and “The Valley” (2017) which received a Detroit Music Award for Outstanding Country Recording, and “Lost on the Range” (2020), which received a Detroit Music Award for Outstanding Americana Recording.

Many fans have found The Whiskey Charmers through the video game “Detroit: Become Human” which is set in their home city in the near future world of 2038 and has sold more then eight million copies worldwide. The band is working on their fifth full length record, set to release in Spring 2024.

Earthwork Collective artist Jo Serrapere (sarah-pear), a songwriter from Detroit, Michigan, started playing guitar at 23 when seeking out lessons from Delta Blues guitarist, Shari Kane. Shortly thereafter, Jo began writing her own songs while completing her college studies in clinical psychology. She now plays at music venues throughout the United States as well as maintaining a successful psychotherapy practice and raising her delightful daughter. 

Whether recreating old classic songs or performing original songs in her own deeply confessional and comic styles, Jo’s music stands original while always reflecting her love of American roots music. Her eclectic writing and performance fuses elements of various modern and traditional folk music, Delta and electric blues, roots rock, classic and alt-country, garage rock surf and swing. 

Jo often performs with her partner, John Devine, where she plays drums and guitar. She also performs regularly with her bands, the Willie Dunns (John Devine, David Roof and Stuart Tucker), Stella! (Jen Sygit and Julianna Wilson) and the LaFawndas (Joel Jackson, Lindsay McCaw, John Devine, Jason Oberliesen and Stuart Tucker). They bring added depth and musical styling to Jo’s original songs as well as classics from such artists as Mississippi John Hurt, Wanda Jackson, Bessie Smith and Tom Waits. Jo is also the founding member of the old-time group Uncle Earl.