The four primary steps to make whiskey are mashing, fermenting, distilling and aging. Whiskey, including Tennessee whiskey, is any distilled spirit made from a fermented mash made of grain. Bottled at not less than 80 proof (40% a.b.v.).Placed in the barrel at no more than 125 proof (62.5% a.b.v.).Distilled to no more than 160 proof (80% alcohol by volume).Made from grain that consists of at least 51% corn.Filtered through maple charcoal prior to aging, also known as the Lincoln County Process.We have a beautiful facility in Thompson’s Station and now another in Townsend, and they are nice reflections of our brand. “Even with the pandemic and now supply-chain issues, it still feels like the right thing. “I had a great run at Jack Daniel’s but felt like I should take a shot at starting my own brand or I’d regret it,” Arnett says. Its state roots run deep, with Jack Daniel’s former master distiller Jeff Arnett holding the same duties and title as part of the team behind the new site, which is Company’s second location since its founding in 2020. The trail’s newest location is Company Distilling, which had its grand opening in Townsend in early July.

Perhaps the most visible sign of the industry’s evolution, other an ongoing, successful push beginning in 2009 to rewrite pre-Prohibition era of state laws that forbade their existence in most of the state (see sidebar) is the Tennessee Whiskey Trail, which was established in 2017 and now numbers more than 30 distillery stops across the state. These days, instead of being underground operators living in fear of the “Revenuers” breaking up their equipment, Tennessee’s distillers have become a cohesive group of entrepreneurs working to drive economic development and tourism across the state. Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound is the mother of Williams Jr.'s outlaw records and it rocks harder than anything in his catalog.The foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains have long played host to distilleries, though their grand openings weren’t always accompanied by a news release. Among the album's covers, the most notable and soulful is Gregg Allman's 'Come and Go Blues,' which is not played by the band so much as attacked, and Williams' vocal does Allman's example proud. 'OD'd in Denver' is its own dark reward and the band digs into the groove deep and greasy. It's easy to see why he complained later that it wasn't a single, though he is out of his mind for doing so. The set cooks up to here and after, and the title track feels out of place on the album, though it is exceptionally well-crafted as a song. It's an in-your-face to political correctness and feminism. And before allowing all that good-time fun to go to waste, Williams and band weigh in with one of his most notorious macho outlaw tomes, 'Women I've Never Had.' It's sexist as hell, and Hank wanted it that way. Williams is not one to wallow and his disappointments come right back with a slash-and-burn cover of the nugget 'White Lightnin',' most closely associated with George 'Thumper' Jones. But it's a divorce song of remorse and regret, not bitterness or clever one-upmanship.

Good' is a redneck call to arms, 'Outlaw Women' has been sung by every motorcycle club from coast to coast since 1979, and '(I Don't Have) Anymore Love Songs' is one of the finer divorce songs written during that decade. 'Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound' is one of those moody Southern rock ballads that feels like it may explode at any time. feels like he's auditioning to be a member of Black Oak Arkansas or Molly Hatchet on the outside and the Allmans, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Marshall Tucker on the inside.

Utilizing Waylon and cats like James Burton, David Briggs, Larrie Londin, Buddy Spicher, Kieran Kane, Reggie Young, and the Muscle Shoals Horns, they took the outlaw boogie into the stratosphere. Since Nash Vegas didn't seem to give a damn one way or the other, the pair leaned on the rockin' side of country even harder. team kicked up the tension a couple of notches on 1979's Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound.

Whiskey bent