South Jersey's powerhouse trio Whiskey Grin was founded by Jim Mayberry (guitars) and John Tidwell (bass and lead vocals) in 2013. These two life-long friends started their first band together in their teens under the name Exodus (A.D.).Together they wrote 30+ songs before the age of 18, but as many high school bands go, they also broke up before the age of 18. John got married young and disappeared into relative obscurity to raise kids and continued in his passion for music serving as a church musician and worship leader. Jim also pursued those musical passions and became best known for recording and touring the East Coast with his original heavy metal band "Sanctum", opening for national acts like Pantera and Savatage, whose founding members went on to create Trans Siberian Orchestra. Sanctum's debut album "Believers", is still one of the most sought after underground metal CD's of all time.
Decades went by until the old friends decided to “get the band back together”.
On drums, they found the man known as "Dreem", who has been one of the most in demand drummers in the South Jersey club scene, playing everything from country, to R&B, to heavy metal. As a part of the hard rock band "Now", Dreem has opened up for national acts such as Blue Oyster Cult, The Pretenders, .38 Special, and Jason Bonham.
Whiskey Grin's has been working the clubs in the Greater Philadelphia Area with powerful 3 part harmonies, driven by hook-laden guitar riffs. You'll find taking their powerful “new classic rock’ to venues beyond Philadelphia from North Jersey, to Central Pennsylvania, to Baltimore MD as they continue to expand their territory through the Mid-Atlantic Region. Their debut CD was released in 2018 and is available on most streaming platforms.
In addition to being a major force in the Philadelphia Rock Music scene, they've opened up for Pat Travers, The Dead Daisies, Faster Pussycat, HammerFall, Flotsam and Jetsam, and Roxy Blue. In 2019 they toured with Chad Szeliga's band Walking With Lions. In 2022 they beat out dozens of other New Jersey original bands to earn a spot at The Orange Loop Festival in Atlantic City with Stone Temple Pilots, Hoobastank,Chevelle, Puddle of Mudd, Stephen Pearcy, Great White, John 5, Doro, LA Guns and many more. This past year Whiskey Grin headlined their own show at South Jersey’s illustrious Landis Theater, and they have their eyes set on many other great possibilities for the coming year, while they return to the studio to record their second album.
The energy, power and immense sound that comes from these 3 guys, with no backing tracks, harmonizers or computer software is something that will just blow you away. Make sure you get out and see this one-of-a-kind power trio.
