The moderator of sports debate shows like Undisputed or First Take is often not placed in a position to often add much to the discussion, as their role is to move the show from topic to topic and keep the two men yelling at each other on the tracks. That doesn’t mean they don’t have opinions on the topics at play or the things said on the show, but they aren’t often afforded much in the way of time to say it.
However, sometimes in the segues between topics or before throwing it to commercial they will add their two cents, and on Wednesday morning Jenny Taft did just that on Undisputed, as she took exception to Bayless comments on Mike McCarthy’s appearance. It was, to start, a comment that seemed to just be her pointing out her stance and getting ready to move it along, but Skip took issue with it and what transpired next was Taft seemingly airing out some frustration about Bayless and noting that “I’m allowed to have an opinion,” to which Bayless crudely responded, “uh, no.”
That “uh, no” left many disappointed (albeit not all too shocked) in Bayless, and it’s that attitude that has been apparently building frustration for Taft in her role moderating the show. Shannon seemed to just want to play peacekeeper and recognized it wasn’t good, saying “we’re a team” but it seems clear all is not peachy on the Undisputed set at the moment.
Gymnast Simone Biles attributes a lot of her success to the fact that she was adopted by her grandfather, Ron, and his wife, Nellie, in 2000. “My road to success began the day my grandfather and his wife officially adopted my sister and me,” the five-time world champion and four-time Olympic gold medalist wrote in a piece for CNN.
“Although I was young when my foster care ordeal began, I remember how it felt to be passed off and over-looked,” she wrote. “Like nobody knew me or wanted to know me. Like my talents didn’t count, and my voice didn’t matter. Finding a family made me feel like I mattered.”
Biles and three of her siblings were placed in the Ohio foster care system when she was just three years old because her parents had substance abuse problems.
“Being separated from my biological mom, being placed in foster care before I officially got adopted by my grandparents, it just set me up for a better route at life, and I feel like I wouldn’t be where I am unless that turning point happened,” she said on Facebook Watch.
However, just because she is an advocate for children in the foster care system, doesn’t mean that she isn’t pro-choice as well.
The gymnast stirred up controversy on Monday night when she asked her Instagram followers to submit “unpopular opinions” so she could weigh in with her thoughts. When one wrote, “abortion is wrong,” Biles responded saying she is “very much pro-choice.”
“I already know this is going to start the biggest argument and may even lose followers BUT. I’m very much pro-choice. Your body. Your choice,” she wrote.
via Simone Biles / Instagram Stories
Biles knew that her opinions would be controversial, especially because she was adopted.
“Also for everyone [who’s] gonna say ‘just put it up for adoption,’ ” she started, adding eye-rolling emojis, “it’s not that easy and coming from someone who was in the foster care system TRUST me.”
“Foster care system is broken and it’s TOUGH. Especially on the kids and young adults who age out. And adoption is expensive … I’m just saying,” she added.
Abortion is a controversial topic so it wasn’t a surprise that Biles received a lot of negative responses to her stance. But some people had the audacity to conclude that Biles thinks people should have abortions instead of giving their babies up for adoption.
I have forever & will continue to support foster kids. AS I WAS ONE. I’ve been an advocate for foster kids and the… https://t.co/MQP3Cs5W2U
“DO NOT misconstrue my words. That is not at all what I implied. I did NOT say I support to abort rather than to put them through the foster care system. What I did imply is that you should not control someone else’s body/decision,” she said.
“I have forever and will continue to support foster kids. AS I WAS ONE,” Biles continued. “I’ve been an advocate for foster kids and the system but you wouldn’t know that because you don’t follow me, you just like to open your mouth.”
Controversial topics like abortion can make people so angry they have a hard time understanding a nuanced opinion. Being pro-choice doesn’t mean that someone is anti-adoption or against the foster care system. It simply means that they believe people — especially women — should be able to make their own reproductive decisions.
Adoption is a choice. Abortion is a choice. Biles believes that the pregnant person is the one who should be making that decision.
Drinking whiskey and listening to music go hand in hand. Pouring a glass of the good stuff and slipping a beloved vinyl out of its sleeve is a whole vibe. Or maybe you’re rocking your favorite summer streaming playlist and downing Jack and Cokes. Either way, whiskey pairs well with pretty much all genres of music so much so that thousands of songs have been written about drinking in general while hundreds have been written specifically about whiskey.
We’re here to talk about songs about whiskey and the best whiskey to pour for each of those tunes. I’m not a music critic, so I won’t be critiquing any of these songs. But I am a whiskey critic, and these tunes stand out from the dense crowd of whiskey hymns, so I paired them with the bottles that capture the vibe of each song.
The feel of the song is really what I focused on with these pairings. Bands and artists from the plains tended to elicit thoughts of vast fields of rye and wheat. Irish bands singing about whiskey took me to Midleton, Cork, and Dublin. Old school Americana blues riffs called for old school bourbons. You get the point so let’s dive in and listen to some good tunes and drink some damn good whiskey.
We’re starting off by going way back to the Benny Goodman big band era. While this song doesn’t actually reference whiskey in the lyrics, it’s all about a regretful love life, which is a major theme of a lot of songs about whiskey. Plus, we all need a little extra Billie Holiday in our lives.
The Whiskey:
The blend is a “pure malt” blended whisky, meaning that it’s made only with single malts (usually blended scotch is made with both grain and malt whisky). In this case, the juice is pulled from all over Scotland with a focus on Speyside, Highland, Lowland, and Island malts, including a minimum of 15-year-old Talisker, Caol Ila, Cragganmore, and Linkwood.
Tasting Notes:
This sip draws you in with the smells of an old, soft cedar box that’s held black pepper, sweet fruits, and oily vanilla pods next to a hint of green grass. The taste really holds onto the cedar as the fruits lean tropical with a hint of dried roses pinging in the background. The end builds on that by adding a note of spicy tobacco, a splash of sea spray, and a distant billow of campfire smoke.
The Pairing Lyric:
“I jumped out of the frying pan and right into the fire. Lord, right into the fire.”
This feels like the best place to start since oftentimes when drinking scotch, you’re jumping into the smoky fire for the night.
19. One Bourbon, One Scotch, and One Beer, John Lee Hooker — Chivas Regal 12
This mid-1960s version of the bluesy original from Amos Milburn is far more succinct than the sprawling George Thoroughgood version, which is a bit like watching a documentary play out in song. It clocks in at just north of three minutes, which is the perfect amount of time to pour yourself a whiskey and get ready for a drinking session with John Lee Hooker’s timeless licks.
The Whiskey:
This Highland whisky is built around the famed Strathisla Distillery. The whisky is crafted to work as a sipper or mixer, with real complexity built-in. It really shines in both respects.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a matrix of oak, nuts, malts, and fruit up top. The fruitiness leans into orchards in full bloom as a minerality drives the taste towards spicy tobacco with a hint of creamy vanilla. The oak peeks back in with a little more maltiness, as the end slowly fades alongside a mild chewiness.
The Pairing Lyric:
“I ain’t seen the girl since night before last. Wanna get drunk, get her off my mind. One bourbon, one scotch, one beer.”
Chivas feels like an easy pour at a dive bar if you’re ordering scotch. It’s cheap, very easy drinking, and pretty damn ubiquitous.
18. What Good Can Drinkin’ Do, Janis Joplin — Old Tub
Joplin wrote and recorded this deep cut when she was 19. It’s a classic blues number in all its 12-bar glory. It also feels like a time machine to a completely different era — if not world — where you learn the cold hard truth that the answers you seek are not at the bottom of a bottle.
The Whiskey:
Last year, Jim Beam released their “distillery-only” Old Tub expression on the national market. The juice is an unfiltered and higher ABV version of classic Beam, giving you more of the brand’s depth in each sip of whiskey.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a sense of cornmeal next to sawdust, oily vanilla, and a hint of fresh honey sweetness that entices your senses. The sip takes on a caramel corn sweetness as the vanilla carries you towards sweeter woods and cherry fruits. The end is short and sweet (like most Beam), with a distant wisp of orange oils next to a slight minerality.
The Pairing Lyric:
“Give me whiskey, give me bourbon, give me gin because it doesn’t matter what I’m drinking, Lord, as long as it drowns this sorrow I’m in.”
The old-school blues harmony of the guitar and vocals on this take you straight back to the 1920s. And that is exactly where Old Tub is from (albeit a new version of that). The throwback bourbon feels perfect for sipping on while listening to this throwback track.
17. Moonshiner, Bob Dylan — Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye
This early Dylan track goes deep on the whiskey drinking and sorrow wallowing with friends at a local bar. The song’s last verse starts with “The whole world’s a bottle and life’s but a dram.” If that’s not the perfect whiskey verse (albeit a Shakespeare paraphrase), we don’t know what is.
The Whiskey:
Crown Royal puts out a lot of whisky. But their Northern Harvest Rye might well be their best release to date. The juice is a blend of ryes, creating a 90 percent rye whisky, that’s then cut with spring water and bottled at a very approachable 90 proof.
Tasting Notes:
This opens with a nose leaning into dried florals and herbs with a sweet edge of pear and apricot. It’s slightly grassy with touches of pepper spice and woody vanilla taking. aback seat to the pears and peaches and red berries. The end is swift but leaves you with a sense of scones covered in orange marmalade with a nice dose of eggnog spice warmth.
The Pairing Lyric:
“The whole world’s a bottle and life’s but a dram. When the bottle gets empty, it sure ain’t worth a damn.”
There’s just something about the old-school, wind-swept Northern folksiness of this song that feels like the ever-moving grass fields where Dylan grew up. And that always leads us back to Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye. The whisky will transport you to those grassy fields that Dylan ran away through all those times as a kid.
16. Streams of Whiskey, The Pogues — Tullamore D.E.W.
The Pogues have always felt like the ultimate whiskey drinking band. It’s no secret that the band’s lead, Shane MacGowan, would go on notoriously dark drinking binges. That darkness often comes through in the lyrics of a lot of their upbeat pub songs, including this one.
The Whiskey:
This is a straight-up classic Irish whiskey. The juice is triple distilled — like most Irish whiskeys — and then it rests in both ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks. The whiskeys are then blended into a final product that’s as easy to drink as it is to mix.
Tasting Notes:
Clear fruity notes of apple mingle with a hint of bourbon-y vanilla. That fruit carries on through the very light (in a good way) sip as a hint of wood and citrus arrive. The vanilla peeks back in near the end as the sip quickly fades while warming you up.
The Pairing Lyric:
“I am going, I am going where streams of whiskey are flowing, yeah!”
This could literally be Ireland’s tourism branding. Whiskey and Ireland and inextricably bound and Tullamore D.E.W. feels like the Pogue-esque underdog to enjoy while dreaming of the Emerald Isle.
15. Whiskey in the Jar, Thin Lizzy — Jameson Stout Cask
In the end, this is a classic Irish folk song (originally performed by The Dubliners) of love, betrayal, colonialism, and death wrapped up a in very 70s rock jam.
The Whiskey:
Aging stout in whiskey barrels has a long tradition in brewing. Then there’s the whole tradition of stouts in Ireland that go hand-in-hand with drams of Irish whiskey. So aging Jameson in whiskey barrels that held stout beer makes a lot of sense.
In this case, the aged juice spends an extra six months in the stout barrels, giving the whiskey that little something extra.
Tasting Notes:
Apple orchards and bails of hay mingle with almonds, spice, chocolate, and a hint of lemon oil. Dark chocolate and a note of spicy wood dance on the palate as creamy sweetness balances everything out. The end brings about a note of butterscotch next to a milkier chocolate texture that quickly drops off.
The Pairing Lyric:
“As I was goin’ over the Cork and Kerry mountains…”
If there’s anything County Cork is now known for, it’s the Midleton Distillery where the world’s supply of Jameson is made. The extra boozy aspects of this song of lust, murder, and tragedy adds a certain Irish stoutness to the mix, hence the mix of stout finishing and old-school Jameson.
This politic Irish folk song from Christy Moore goes to some pretty dark places while memorializing Irish suffering during the Troubles. Moore laments the people lost to “winter graves” and “streets running red” and, yeah, we need a pull of a whiskey now too.
The Whiskey:
This is a testament to the magic that can happen when a cask hits just the right marks. This is the standard 12-year expression — single pot still, triple distilled, and ex-bourbon/ex-sherry maturation — that’s blended and bottled unfiltered and uncut.
It’s the purest expression of the cask in the bottle.
Tasting Notes:
Dried tropical fruit, stone fruit, and berries come through on the nose with a hint of cedar next to a slight cinnamon-forward spice powder. Those fruits and spices mix into a Christmas cake with a bit of malt next to that wood while vanilla pokes in with a rich and creamy texture. The fruit, oak, and spice marry on the long and warming end as the fade brings a buzzing to your senses.
The Pairing Lyric:
“Kids wear white garters and smell like their mothers whose husbands and fathers alike drink black beer in the same public houses, smelling of smoke and strong whiskey.”
This protest song gets pretty deep and brutal, so we’re sticking with the “strong whiskey” part. And that makes us think of Redbreast 12 Cast Strength. It’s one of the stronger Irish whiskeys on the shelf while still being one of the most well-made.
13. Here Comes A Regular, The Replacements — Larceny Wheated Bourbon Barrel Proof
This song feels like it’s going to be about Norm from Cheers. But it’s, again, a dark tome of drinking alone, the loss of a friend, and more drinking.
The Whiskey:
These barrel blends from Heaven Hill are meant to highlight the precise quality of the distillery’s prowess from grain to bottle. This small batch of wheated bourbon is derived from barrels between six and eight years old. The juice then goes right into the bottle with no cutting or filtering, allowing the masterful craft to shine through in every sip.
Tasting Notes:
This has a mellow nose that ebbs and flows between soft maple syrup cut with cinnamon sticks, a light touch of brioche, new leather gloves, and bruised apples. It offers a warm rollercoaster ride through figgy puddings touched with burnt sugars, dried fruits and nuts, holiday spices, and a brandy butter silkiness. The taste has a hint of almond or walnut shell on the end that marries to a dry mouthfeel, vanilla, and a touch of tobacco chewiness.
The warmth lingers pretty long but never overpowers and almost becomes halfway between fizzy and buzzing as it fades, leaving you with a woody, bourbon vibe and a very late wet straw note.
The Pairing Lyric:
“And even if you’re in the arms of someone’s baby now, I’ll take a great big whiskey to you anyway.”
Most of the wheat for American bourbons comes from Minnesota (and North Dakota). Since The Replacements also come from the land of endless wheat, a wheated bourbon felt like the best move. Plus, Larceny Barrel Proof feels like the epitome of a “great big whiskey.”
12. Whiskey River, Willie Nelson — Balcones Texas Single Malt Whisky
There are about a million country songs about breakups and whiskey. We chose three for this list and at least one of those had to be from Willie Nelson. While this song is pretty straightforward (it’s all chorus and bridges), it flows at the perfect pace to sip some good whisky.
The Whiskey:
Master Distiller Jared Himstedt has one of the best collections of Scotch single malts I’ve seen outside of Scotland. This expression is his salute to the classic style. The juice is made from 100 percent malted barley in copper pot stills before aging in variously sized barrels before getting finished in a single, large barrel. The final product is a single malt unlike any other that’ll help you fall in love with the style.
Tasting Notes:
Hints of pears and bananas greet you with a sense of rose water and citrus. The sip shines with a feel of rich, sweet, and bitter marmalade with a base of sourdough toast dripping with rich, creamy butter. This sip is like a warm hug that you didn’t know you needed.
The dram fades slowly through the senses as burnt sugar, cedar, and honey notes linger on the palate.
The Pairing Lyric:
“I’m drowning in a whiskey river, bathing my mem’ried mind. In the wetness of its soul, feeling the amber current flowin’ from my mind.”
You need a Texas whisky as unique as Willie for this song and that is Balcones Texas Single Malt.
11. Alabama Song (Whisky Bar), The Doors — Evan Williams Black Label
This might be the most 60s-sounding song of all time. Still, the beat is quick enough to get you hyped about a drinking session at your favorite whiskey bar, and that’s sort of the point of all of this.
The Whiskey:
This is more of an entry-point for Evan Williams. The juice is a mix of four to seven-year-old barrels of the standard Heaven Hill bourbon. The whiskey is then proofed to 43 proof and bottled.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a bit of that fruit candy feel to this sip next to vanilla, dry corn, and a hint of caramel apples next to oak. The body of the sip is very light, with a slight spice burn. The end is very short, sweet, and full of vanilla, toffee, and oak.
The Pairing Lyric:
“Well, show me the way to the next whiskey bar. Oh, don’t ask why.”
If you’re drinking shots of Evan Williams Black at a whiskey bar, no one had better ask you why.
10. Take Your Whiskey Home, Van Halen — Bulliet Rye
This song starts off as a classic blues number and ends as a now-classic 80s rocker with a nice Eddie Van Halen solo to cap things off. At its heart, though, the song is about alcoholism destroying a relationship, which is very in line with classic blues.
The Whiskey:
MGP of Indiana’s rye is one of the most popular ryes on earth. Their rye is has a mash bill of 95 percent rye and five percent malted barley. The juice is aged for four to seven years before blending, proofing, and bottling.
Tasting Notes:
This dram opens up with a mix of resinous cedar, sharp rye spiciness, creamy vanilla, and a hint of fresh mint. The taste delivers on those notes while folding in hints of dark cacao (with water added), savory fruits, and a buttery/crumbly biscuit somewhere deep in the bottom of the sip. The end lasts a while and circles back around to that cedar and sap, with plenty more sharp spiciness.
The Pairing Lyric:
“Yeah, you know that you’re headed for a lot of trouble if you take your whiskey home.”
Bulleit Rye remains one of the best bar whiskeys money can buy. It’s a good mixer or shooter and always available … at the bar.
9. Friends In Low Places, Garth Brooks — Jim Beam Bonded
Yes, this is a country breakup song. But it’s uptempo and pretty much a classic (or standard) at this point. It’s also a banger for just the right moment when you’re drinking at a dive bar and just tipsy enough to sing along with the whole bar.
The Whiskey:
This bourbon is Jim Beam’s high watermark when it comes to Kentucky bourbon. The juice is aged in a bottled-in-bond facility for four years where it’s also bottled at 100 proof with no bullshit. This is the standard Beam bourbon mash bill (77 percent corn, 13 percent rye, and ten percent malted barley) but there’s just something extra happening that makes this expression shine.
Tasting Notes:
This bourbon beckons you in with notes of toasted oak, red cherry, and vanilla. That leads to fresh honey, sweet caramel corn, rich toffee, bold vanilla, crisp apple, more of that red cherry, peppery spice, and a note of fresh mint. With a little water, the dram edges towards bitter dark chocolate with a nice billow of pipe tobacco while holding onto the mint, toffee, and vanilla oakiness.
The end is long, meandering, and full of warmth, fruit, spice, and bourbon goodness.
The Pairing Lyric:
“‘Cause I’ve got friends in low places where the whiskey drowns and the beer chases my blues away and I’ll be okay.”
You’re gonna want something familiar, cheap, good, and strong while you party (and sway) to this song. Jim Beam Bonded hits all of those marks perfectly.
When I made this list, I thought to myself, “Whiskey’N Mama has to be in there.” I remembered a fun romp of Texas rock. But, again, this is a breakup song about a Whiskey’N Mama. I swear we have some fun songs on this list too!
The Whiskey:
This introductory juice from Four Roses is a blend of all ten of their whiskeys. The barrels are a minimum of five years old when they’re plucked from the warehouses, blended, brought down to proof, and bottled.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a bit of steeliness to the nose that’s mellowed by hints of dried florals, apple, and a touch of honey and spice. The taste doesn’t veer too far from the nose as the apple turns more honey, with mild vanilla and more honeyed sweetness. The end is subtle and short with a touch of green oak, spice, fruit, and one more dash of honey.
The Pairing Lyric:
“I should have known better than to fool with a whiskey’n mama.”
There’s something about Four Roses that feels very ZZ Top. Just grab a bottle of Four Roses the next time you’re in a liquor store, you won’t be disappointed, especially if ZZ Top is already playing on your car radio.
7. Whiskey And You, Chris Stapleton — Jim Beam Black
This is the ultimate hangover/breakup song. Stapleton’s very slowed and drop-D take on the Tim McGraw track will break your soul if you’re already hungover and maybe help it start to mend if you’re going through a breakup.
The Whiskey:
This expression replaced the old Black Label 8 Year. The juice in this bottle is aged longer than your average four-year-old Beam, but there is no age statement on exactly how long. The best way to think of it is that it’s aged for as long as it needs to be, according to the distilling team.
Tasting Notes:
This bourbon is where Jim Beam starts to get dialed-in to its core notes of vanilla, caramel, corn, and oak, with a hint of orchard fruit. Yes, all of those elements were there in standard Jim Beam above. But there’s more refinement in this whiskey with a little bit of sweet smoke added in. By the end, the vanilla is more like a dried vanilla pod, the caramel is richer, the fruit is a bit more tart (sweet apple-ish), the oak is more toasted than charred.
The fade isn’t too long but sticks with you.
The Pairing Lyric:
“Come tomorrow, I can walk in any store, it ain’t a problem, they’ll always sell me more.”
Jim Beam is the ultimate bottle that you can literally walk into any store and find some variation on the shelf. And yes, they’ll always sell you one.
6. Whiskey Girl, Gillian Welch — Michter’s Small Batch Original Sour Mash Whiskey
Keeping things low and slow, this ethereal song is all about a couple tying one on and going deep into the “underworld.” It’s very folksy and Americana-filed somehow (I told you I wasn’t a music critic). In the end, it’s about two people coming together rather than splitting up.
The Whiskey:
This was the first American whiskey to be named “Whiskey of the Year” by The Whiskey Exchange just last year. The reason this is a “sour mash” and not a bourbon or rye is that the mash bill doesn’t focus on corn or rye, hence it’s just a sour mash whiskey. The juice is then aged in new white oak with a heavy char.
Tasting Notes:
Smoked plums and rye spice mingle up top. The sip really embraces the smoky dark fruit with hints of vanilla and cherry popping up on the palate. The dram carries that smoky plumminess through to the end with a nice nod to the oak and bourbon-y vanilla underbelly.
The Pairing Lyric:
“Nowhere man and the whiskey girl, they loaded up for a weekend in the underworld.”
There’s something about the folksy and haunting tones of Welch’s voice that speaks to this deeply flavored and folksy whiskey. Pour it neat and let the record spin.
5. Drink You Away, Justin Timberlake — Jack Daniel’s Sinatra Select
This song straight-up references Jim and Jack, so you know we had to pick one of those two. And, yes, we know this is another breakup song. Still, it’s an easy jam to let spin while you sip some good whiskey.
The Whiskey:
Frank Sinatra was one of Jack’s biggest fans. The crooner was buried with a bottle. The actual juice in this expression is a throwback of sorts to how Jack was made in Sinatra’s day. They use special “Sinatra Barrels” that have concentric grooves carved into the newly charred oak, giving the whiskey more surface area to do its thing. Once that’s aged, it’s blended with traditional Old No. 7 and proofed at 45 percent, as it also would have been back in the Rat Pack days.
Tasting Notes:
Stonefruit, caramel apples, vanilla pods, and a hint of that toasted oak pull you in. The sip leans into the fruit with a rich and buttery vanilla-laden caramel, plenty of peppery spice, and more of that oak, along with a very distant echo of tobacco smoke. The fruit leans back towards a mild banana as the caramel, spice, vanilla, and oak slowly fades out and warms your senses, leaving you with one final puff of that smoke.
The Pairing Lyric:
“I’ve tried Jack, I’ve tried Jim, I’ve tried all of their friends, but I can’t drink you away.”
But did he try Jack Daniel’s Sinatra Select? Really, this is more about the tuxedo-wearing swagger Timberlake rocked during his 20/20 tour — that was Sinatra to its core — than it is about a breakup song.
Okay, we’re picking things back up. This is the ultimate “let’s get this party started” tune for hard rockers. Hell, a shot of whiskey almost magically appears in your hand when this song revs up.
The Whiskey:
Starward Solera is an Australian grain-to-glass experience. The mash is made from 100 percent Australian malted barley. The juice is then aged in used Apera fortified wine casks from Australia. The final result is cut with local water and bottled at a very agreeable 86 proof.
Tasting Notes:
Subtle notes of butterscotch, red berries, and vanilla pods mingle on the nose. The palate has a slight floral note (think dried roses) that marries well to those sweet red berries as a note of woody spice comes into play with a hint of honey. The end leans into the vanilla to the point of getting a little creamy as the fruit, honey, and spice fade out.
The Pairing Lyric:
“Yes, my glass is gettin’ shorter on whiskey, ice, and water.”
Look at that! The recipe for a highball. Starward Solera is an excellent choice for a great highball with unique flavors and plenty of Aussie vibes.
3. Broken Whiskey Glass, Post Malone — Wild Turkey 101
This feels like a post-modern My Morning Jacket boast track. It’s mostly about getting f*cked up and going through life as a rock star, which whiskey always seems to be a central part of. But hey, at least it’s not about another breakup.
The Whiskey:
A lot of Wild Turkey’s character comes from the hard and deep char they use on their oak barrels. 101 is a high-rye and high-ABV bourbon that leans into the wood and aging, having spent six years in the cask. A little of that soft Kentucky limestone water is added to cool it down a bit before bottling.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a sweetness that feels like buttery toffee next to creamy vanilla and a note of citrus next to charred oak. The taste delivers on those notes and adds more vanilla pudding, sharp rye spice, butterscotch, and a hint of fresh and sweet tobacco leaves. The end is bold and long with the spice, oak, and sweetness lingering on the senses while heating you to your soul (this is what’s called the “Kentucky hug,” although this particular embrace isn’t overly gentle).
The Pairing Lyric:
“And that 101 like the highway in hell, going too damn fast.”
Those extra ABVs on Turkey 101 will 100 percent get you there faster.
A song purely about partying, taking shots, wearing sunglasses at night, and Jameson with an Avril Lavigne hook (of sorts)? F*ck yeah, I’ll drink to that.
The Whiskey:
This is more than just 18-year-old Jameson. It’s a masterful blend of hand-selected 18-year-old whiskeys aged in ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks. That juice is then married and finished in first-fill bourbon casks until it’s just right.
Tasting Notes:
This has a bold-yet-dialed-in nose, with bourbon vanilla, soft cedar, orange oils, rich toffee, and subtle spice. The taste delivers on those promises and adds in leather, hazelnuts, and a dusting of dark chocolate (especially with a little water). The end is slow and combines the cedar, toffee, and spice in a wonderful balance.
The Pairing Lyric:
“Oh, let the Jameson sink in, I drink to that, yeah, yeah…”
If Rihanna is calling out Jameson shots at the bar, they better be the best f*cking Jameson shots ever. And that’s clearly Jameson 18.
1. Tennessee Whiskey, Chris Stapleton — Uncle Nearest 1856
This list was pre-destined to end on this song. It’s about being in love and the person you’re in love with being as good as Tennessee whiskey — well that and strawberry wine and brandy too. Regardless, this is probably the best whiskey song of all time (this version specifically) because it’s not about a breakup. It’s about finding love, which is a massive outlier in songs about whiskey.
The Whiskey:
This whiskey is the entry point to the newly minted Uncle Nearest line. The shingle was created to celebrate Nathan “Nearest” Green who was instrumental in Jack Daniel’s early success in postbellum Tennessee. The juice in the bottle is a sourced (for now) blend of Tennessee whiskeys that have aged eight to 14 years before blending and bottling.
Tasting Notes:
Fairground caramel corn mingles with rushes of dry hay, thin maple syrup, bowls of freshly picked peaches, and a hint of red berries. The fruit takes on dry edges as the maple and caramel take on a spiciness next to a maltiness that almost feels like a spiced cake full of dried red fruit. There’s a hint of dried florals behind vanilla and caramel on the short end.
The Pairing Lyric:
“You’re as smooth as Tennessee whiskey. You’re as sweet as strawberry wine. You’re as warm as a glass of brandy. And honey, I stay stoned on your love all the time.”
That deep red fruit that turns a little dry in a Tennessee whiskey exudes the vibes of this song’s chorus. Tennessee whiskey, strawberry wine, and brandy is this bottle.
Check out the whole playlist below:
As a Drizly affiliate, Uproxx may receive a commission pursuant to certain items on this list.
Teen indie phenom Glaive is fresh off the release of his new EP, All Dogs Go To Heaven. Now, he has shared a new video for the title track (which is technically titled “All Dogs Go To Heaven (Outro).”) While a lot of Glaive songs are characterized by their extremely high energy levels, this one is more of a relatively slow-burning ballad.
Ahead of the video, Glaive shared a message of gratitude for his fans, saying, “i’m quite tired rn but thank you guys sm for the support on all dogs go to heaven so far, i put a lot of effort into the project and i’m super happy with how it came out! some more super cool stuff happening in the next week or so :).”
i’m quite tired rn but thank you guys sm for the support on all dogs go to heaven so far, i put a lot of effort into the project and i’m super happy with how it came out! some more super cool stuff happening in the next week or so 🙂
In another recent tweet, Glaive described the process of writing his All Dogs Go To Heaven songs, saying, “i wrote everything myself so i kind of just put down some ideas in the notes app of my phone and then turned them into full songs and then inspiration wise i was just trying to make music i liked i didn’t want it to sound like anyone else’s music.”
i wrote everything myself so i kind of just put down some ideas in the notes app of my phone and then turned them into full songs and then inspiration wise i was just trying to make music i liked i didn’t want it to sound like anyone else’s music https://t.co/yDkl5gS6X0
After a global pandemic shut down the live music industry, many touring musicians are now getting serious about COVID safety requirements. Musicians like Japanese Breakfast are requiring all concertgoers to provide proof of vaccination against COVID before attending their sets. Jason Isbell is doing the same, and he just opted to cancel a show altogether because a venue wouldn’t comply with his requests.
Isbell’s record label, Southeastern Records, announced Tuesday evening that the night’s show would be canceled. They stated the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in Houston, Texas was “was not willing to comply” with the band’s request that all concertgoes be vaccinated.
Tomorrow’s @JasonIsbell and the 400 Unit show at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in Houston, TX is CANCELLED. Unfortunately, the venue was not willing to comply with the band’s updated Health and Safety standards. (1/2)
Shortly after the announcement was made, Houston Fox News reporter Sally MacDonald replied with an alleged statement from the venue. “The pavilion statement doesn’t say they weren’t willing to comply,” MacDonald wrote. “It says they couldn’t implement a change like that on short notice. Like everywhere else they are short staffed, too.”
The pavilion statement doesn’t say they weren’t willing to comply. It says they couldn’t implement a change like that on short notice. Like everywhere else they are short staffed, too. pic.twitter.com/NKQEptJv0J
However, Isbell replied to MacDonald’s claim on his own account. Isbell said the venue owner “flat-out refused to even attempt to implement the policy.”
The pavilion statement is false. Live Nation, the promoter, was on board but the venue owner flat-out refused to even attempt to implement the policy. https://t.co/iGlfTTLYsV
MacDonald eventually came forward to confirm that she is, in fact, related to the Texas venue owner. She said it was not her “intention to mislead anyone” about her family connections to the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion and that she had not been assigned to the story by her news network.
It was not my intention to mislead anyone about my family connection to The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion. I posted The Pavilion statement, and I just wanted to get more information out. I was never assigned by Fox 26 to cover this story and did not report it on air.
In the past two years, we’ve heard a lot of COVID horror stories. Like, a lot a lot. And each and every one of them has succeeded in keeping me far away from crowds, masked up, and happily vaccinated. As it turns out, hearing about what people have gone through is a powerful tool in encouraging folks to be safe and get vaccinated — so we’re pretty thankful Parks and Rec actor Adam Scott has taken to Twitter to share his own unfortunate experience with the virus.
On August 11, Scott posted a tweet from his personal account detailing his experience with COVID vs. his experience with getting his vaccinations. According to Scott, there is “no comparison” between the two:
I had covid feb ‘21, luckily not hospitalized. Only way to describe is…run over by a train then placed under a hovercraft for 10 days? Wouldn’t wish upon anyone. 1st Moderna shot: nothing. 2nd: felt kinda shitty for 1 day. No comparison. Get the vaccine. Please.
Of course, Scott isn’t the only celebrity who’s come forward with their own COVID horror stories in hopes that people will take the virus as seriously as they should. Back in May, musician Pink revealed she was diagnosed with COVID. According to Pink, she was so terrified by her symptoms she spent part of her time in bed rewriting her will and calling friends to remind them she loved them.
On a recent press tour for her upcoming Marvel film Eternals, actress Salma Hayek also shared her own horrifying experience with the virus and how she elected to stay at home once things got bad because she’d “rather die at home.” Hayek also stated that she still hasn’t regained the energy she had prior to the illness.
In addition to Pink and Hayek, Tom Hanks, Khloe Kardashian, Hugh Grant, and even Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson have all come forward and shared their COVID diagnoses. The late Larry King was also diagnosed and subsequently hospitalized for COVID mere weeks before his death back in January.
While the rising number of folks who have been fully vaccinated in the United States provides us with some hope, there’s still a sizable portion of the country who haven’t gotten their jabs. Here’s hoping celebrities like Scott using their respective platforms to stop the spread of misinformation and promote vaccination leads to more people lining up for their shots. If not, I mean, I don’t know about you all but I’d really love to see a concert sometime this decade, so maybe consider that.
On Wednesday morning, Donald Trump spokesperson Liz Harrington tweeted out a random, three-word statement from the former president that has social media trying to figure out what the heck is even happening. Despite being the messenger, Harrington offered zero context for the statement that simply said “BULLIES NEVER FIGHT!” in all-caps. Instead, she merely captioned it with the word “NEW!” and left it at that.
The only person who had any sort of educated guess at what Trump’s random statement might mean is New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman, who floated the idea that it might be about Andrew Cuomo… somehow?
While others tried to decipher the possible Cuomo connection, if that’s what Trump event meant, others had a field day at the random nature of a former president firing off three-word statements with no context whatsoever. Not to sound cliche, but it was very “old man yells at cloud” energy.
How long before he just gets a “pull my finger” stamp?
On top of roasting Trump’s random statement, other Twitter users began questioning how Harrington is able to blanket her account with Trump statements considering he’s been banned from the platform indefinitely. It does seem like this approach is a questionable workaround that Twitter should be concerned with considering the former president had his account suspended after the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol building. The purpose of the ban was to prevent Trump from being a threat to public safety. Harrington’s posting would seem to fly in the face of that.
It’s been a few years since smash-hit girl group Fifth Harmony went on hiatus to prioritize solo careers. Members like Camila Cabello were able to find instant solo success while others did not have the same opportunities. After leaving to focus on her own music and upcoming solo album, Normani has spent much time reflecting on her time in the group. She now says she felt “overlooked” while in Fifth Harmony, which has impacted her solo career.
Normani recently sat down with Allure for their September 2021 cover interview, where the singer got candid about her solo career’s trajectory. After describing how she felt “overlooked” as a part of Fifth Harmony, Normani says she now wants to show off her versatility. “I didn’t get to really sing in the group. I felt like I was overlooked,” Normani said. “That idea has been projected on me. Like, this is your place.” She continued that she aims to prove them wrong with her new music:
“My purpose in this work that I do is for other people that feel like they have Black women figured out. There’s so many layers to us, there’s so many textures, there’s so much that we’re capable of doing. Yes, I can throw ass. But I can also give you a proper eight-count, and I can do ballet, and I can do contemporary dance. If I want to sing this pop ballad, then you’re going to love it! While you see my Black face!”
Picking one word to describe anyone is hard, picking one to describe Becky Hammon is next to impossible, but the closest has to be expansive. Like staring out at a horizon ringed with heat-hazed hills, clouds boiling with weather rolling in from one direction and blue skies stretching out in the other. Expansive, as in something active, acute, and promising in every direction.
Hammon, who is coming off her 7th season as assistant coach with the San Antonio Spurs and out of one of the more public head coaching searches, put on by the Portland Trail Blazers, is also a longtime champion of her athletic alma matter, the WNBA. As a 6-time All-Star who still might be better known for her perennial cool and incisive presence at the sideline of NBA games, Hammon also has a keen understanding of visibility, and where it tends to count more.
The WNBA’s inaugural Commissioner’s Cup Championship game, a matchup featuring two of the league’s best in the Seattle Storm and Connecticut Sun, airs via Amazon Prime Video in a first of its kind exclusive on August 12th. The Cup, a new in-season tournament created to raise interest in the WNBA throughout it’s regular season, will allow anyone with a Prime membership to stream the game and is another example of the WNBA’s comfort in experimenting for the sake of getting the game in front of new audiences.
“For the WNBA to be on a platform like Prime Video is a big deal,” Hammon says over the phone. “And I think the visibility of the game has a lot to do with the growth and the popularity of the game.”
It’s on the note of the Commissioner’s Cup that the conversation shifts to women’s accolades, specifically, a recent thread of all the titles Sue Bird has collected in one of the most storied careers in all of pro-sports. There are 39, and probably counting if you take into account Bird’s still accelerating career, but the surprising (and not so surprising) thing was how many people seemed to have no idea the extend of Bird’s achievements. Hammon, who often talks about moving the needle when it comes to recognition of women’s accomplishments in and outside of sports, chooses to look at it from a perspective of progress.
“The fact that people are talking about it, the fact that we’re having conversations is a positive. And the fact that it’s started to become visible to people to appreciate it more and not just from men, but other women, appreciating what these women have been doing for years and years,” Hammon says, adding, “Outside of sports, I mean they’re CEOs, they’re COO, they’re leading surgical teams, they’re leading platoons.”
From where she’s looking at it the needle is moving, because women are often the ones recognizing and holding up the successes of other women. Her own success, namely in gaining increasing notoriety for her name being tied to head coaching openings across the NBA, sits on the same double-edged sword of being one of the most qualified and accomplished professionals in the league whose qualifications tend to be viewed as less directly applicable, because her being hired as a head coach will inevitably become a heightened and scrutinized first rather than what it would be: the best person being hired for the job.
When Hammon’s name was floated by the Blazers as being in consideration for their new head coach, and was uttered again by Neil Olshey at Chauncy Billups’s introductory press conference in a kind of patronizing “thanks for coming out”, the message seemed anything but hopeful. But for Hammon, it was a step forward in the same race she’s been in her whole life and one she recently said she’s felt a step behind in since it started.
Asked how, or if she’s grown comfortable with that proverbial starting line being set behind the people she’s gone up against, and Hammon chuckles.
“Well, it is what it is, right? To sit there and say, ‘I have been behind in basically every race I’ve ever gotten into,’ it’s not that you ever get used to it,” she says. “I never like it.”
She acknowledges that it’s precisely that feeling that has built up a resiliency and toughness in her over the years, essentially since childhood.
“It adds a certain element of just a challenge, which I thoroughly enjoy. And I wouldn’t change it. I wouldn’t change it because,” she pauses, “the lessons that I’ve learned throughout these races or successes or failures, or however you want to frame it, has made me, me, and has put me in a position now where, you know, I’m sitting in front of Jody Allen, like I’m not complaining about the starting point. I’ll get in every race and do my best and whatever happens, happens. But to me, the real failure is not trying, not ever getting in the race.”
The race for head coaching jobs in the NBA can also feel like a perpetually cyclical and insular one, with front offices of teams adjusting the lanes to better fit someone it often seems they already have in mind. So much has been made of what a team wants, and whether Hammon fits that, but what is it that she would want, ultimately, at the end of that race?
“Support from the organization, support from the community. You’ve got to build a culture where people enable other people to be great. And you help that by everybody jumping in and helping wherever you can help,” she says, on what it is she wants out of the role of head coach. “I’m somebody who’s leadership style is very relationship oriented in the sense that, I want to know the guy’s stories. I want to spend time with them. I want to get to know them as people, because I want to coach the whole person.”
To Hammon, the role of head coach, the way that she sees it, has to go way beyond the floor. There is a responsibility that comes in being a driving force in the lives of the players she’d be coaching, specifically when it comes to their mental health.
“I don’t want to just coach the athlete. I think that’s one thing that professional sports in general, and we’re starting to call more attention to it, but the mental health stuff we do, we go to great extremes to take care of these guys’ bodies,” Hammon says. “And the most important thing gets neglected and that’s their mind and their emotions and their experiences.”
Hammon was at the Spurs Summer League team’s first game this week, watching from the stands instead of stalking up and down the sideline as she has since her first Summer League head coaching stint in 2015. The last time she coached in Vegas, pre-pandemic, she notes that “Pop really didn’t want me to do it” — “He actually has not wanted me to coach it for the last few years”, she laughs — and that while it’s a growth opportunity for younger coaches to develop, it still holds a prominent part in her heart for the talent, energy and opportunities that it represents for so many hopeful players.
“The hunger of these young players, and guys that are trying to get into the league, there’s just such a purity of competitiveness and try-hard factor that is just really enjoyable to watch that I think Summer League really brings out in guys. I think you feel it when you watch,” Hammon says. “You got a bunch of guys that are really battling for their dream. Their dream’s in the balance, teeter-tottering. And their try-hard factor, and their care factor, really exudes during these games.”
It’s that energy that she circles back to in talking about what she wants out of a head coaching job, because Hammon’s expansiveness comes from a well of determination and doggedness, over anything else.
“We have all these analytics about numbers and areas of the floor, but if there was an analytical test to tell me your competitiveness, your resiliency, your ability to handle stress and pressure, to block out outside noise, to focus, to compete on a night in and night out basis — those are really the markers that I’m really interested in as a coach,” Hammon says.
“Going into these interviews, you asked me what I want?” She says quickly, her voice gaining momentum in its surety. “I want competitors. Because I know you’re going to compete wherever you might be on a Monday night in the NBA on game 64, where nobody’s paying attention, competitors go in and do their job because that’s who they are. That’s how they’re wired.”
She knows, because she’s wired the same. It’s less a super power than it is a brutal kind of honesty, to take failure and disappointment and convert it into perspective, and the team she’d be standing in front of, and ultimately behind, has to have that same transformative skill.
After trading for Russell Westbrook, the Los Angeles Lakers have spent free agency trying to find the best possible bargains on the market to fill out the roster as they are already well over the luxury tax and only have minimums at their disposal to add players to their roster after using their mid-level on Kendrick Nunn.
Many of their signings have been former Lakers, as Dwight Howard, Wayne Ellington, Kent Bazemore, and Trevor Ariza will all be back in L.A. for another stint. They’ve also added Carmelo Anthony for a long-awaited teaming up with LeBron James, but as it stands now, the Lakers have just 12 players on their roster (plus a pair of two-way players). That means there are still three roster spots to fill (although it wouldn’t be a surprise for them to leave one open for a buyout player later) as training camp approaches. With two undrafted rookies on two-ways, one would expect those spots to go to more veteran help, and another (briefly) former Laker has caught their eye.
Isaiah Thomas has spent his summer lighting up the pro-am circuit, most recently scoring 81 at the Crawsover in Seattle, proving that he’s not just healthy but is starting to feel like his game is rounding back into form. According to Marc Stein, Thomas (who has had some interest from the Celtics as well) is on the list of targets the Lakers are considering for those final roster spots on a minimum.
The Lakers, among various free-agent candidates they are still considering, have weighed the potential signing of Isaiah Thomas, league sources say.
The two played together briefly in Cleveland after the Kyrie Irving trade, as Thomas was still dealing with his hip injury, and Thomas was eventually sent to the Lakers from the Cavs in a trade that season. A reunion could be in order, as the Lakers could add Thomas as their third point guard behind Westbrook and Nunn. Whether Thomas fits the bill as the best possible option is a decision for Rob Pelinka and company to make, but it would certainly add another big name to a Lakers roster full of them.
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