The Daily O’Collegian

Entertainment writer Tyler Silvy got the history of both the beverage and the band.

One beverage expert said Taddy Porter is “one of the world’s five best beers.”

But for the lead guitarist of Stillwater’s own Taddy Porter, it represents a beer the band will probably never try.

“I don’t think anyone has tried it yet,” Joe Selby said. “It’s kind of a superstitious thing at this point.”

Taddy Porter might not know what its namesake tastes like but thus far likes the flavor of the music the band plays.

The band’s roots started growing, in typical Stillwater fashion, at a party.

“About a year and a half ago, I wandered into a party at Sixth and Orchard,” said Andy Brewer, guitarist and lead singer for Taddy Porter.

“I heard music playing in the other room, and it was Doug Jones playing the drums.”

Brewer put on an electric guitar, and the two jammed for hours, Jones said.

This meeting was Brewer’s first time to play with a drummer.

The first song the two played together, “Voodoo Johnny,” is one of Brewer’s first originals.

The song is a bluesy number that sounded really good with the drums, Brewer said.

Jones said he has always been around music, and in other bands.

Part of what brought the two together was the recognition of Brewer’s talent as a singer, Jones said.

“He just had an amazing voice, and we had a chemistry that I didn’t have when I jammed with other people,” Jones said.

The chemistry between Brewer and Jones grew with the addition of Kevin Jones, bass player and Doug’s younger brother.

“[Kevin Jones] had been trying to get into the band for a while, and once he started, he picked it up extremely fast,” Brewer said.

The Jones brothers are from Bartlesville.

When Taddy Porter got started, Kevin Jones was still in high school.

“I had to drive here every weekend to practice on Sundays, usually after a show,” Kevin Jones said.

Kevin Jones, who listens to a lot of heavy metal, has seen an expansion in his musical tastes since joining Taddy Porter.

“Well, I’ve always liked classic [rock], but I’ve been exposed to more modern and indie music since being with the band,” Kevin Jones said

Although Kevin Jones has grown to love the music they play, Selby said Taddy Porter’s sound was something he was familiar with and liked.

Selby was a late addition to the band, and he said he didn’t know anyone in the band until he joined.

He was working, as he does now, at the guitar shop on Main Street when he met Brewer.

“I met Andy when he came to take some slide guitar lessons,” said Selby, who graduated from OSU in December 2006 with a marketing degree.

Selby, who has played guitar for 11 years, said he got into the instrument in middle school.

“My friend in seventh grade had a guitar with one string on it,” Selby said. “I used to play around on it, so I saved up some money and bought one of my own.”

His first guitar was a Samick that set him back $150, but now Selby said he has moved up and plays a Gibson Les Paul.

Selby said he has gotten a lot better since joining Taddy Porter in terms of solos and being a lead guitarist.

When it comes to the band’s overall sound, the band members are hesitant when it comes to classifying the group’s musical style, Selby said.

“We’re not red dirt,” Selby said. “We’re more classic rock, with some blues, and a dash of new indie music.”

Kevin Jones said Taddy Porter has a demo of about eight to 10 songs that it pass es out to some fans at bars and clubs.

He said the band hopes to release its first CD, titled “Monocle, in January.

Doug Jones said the style has been a recipe for success,

“Recently, we’ve been really excited about the band’s prospects,” Doug Jones said. “We’ve been booking a lot of shows, and we’re getting better all the time.”

Brewer said if the group continues its current rise, he might not enroll for spring classes.

“I like school, but it is so monotonous,” said Brewer, a geology major.

Doug Jones said after dropping all of his classes, he wasn’t a big fan of school either.

“I started in marketing, then I switched to sociology, then fire protection, and then back to marketing,” Doug Jones said.

“And, I decided I hated it all.”

The idea of dropping out of college might be the only hint that success has gotten to Brewer.

But mega-fan Karen Knepper, who has dubbed herself Taddy Porter’s biggest fan, said she hasn’t seen a change in attitude from Brewer or the band during the past six to eight months that she has followed Taddy Porter.

“Success hasn’t gone to his head, and I don’t think it ever will,” said Knepper, a psychology graduate student. “Taddy Porter will never be too big to come back to Stillwater.”

Selby said Taddy Porter’s sound is still evolving every day.

Now that he has graduated from high school, Kevin Jones said the band practices twice a week, but it doesn’t practice older originals as much.

“We really should practice more stuff, instead of always writing,” Kevin Jones said.

Brewer said song writing, one of the staples of any young band, has gotten easier.

“It is easier as of now,” Brewer said. “But, we are constantly trying to challenge ourselves to write better songs.”