A drummerless Santa Cruz trio who play folk, blues, and ragtime with punk attitude and a devilish grin, one of the defining acts of the folk-punk wing of roots music.
The Short Version
Who Are They?
The Devil Makes Three are a trio from Santa Cruz, California, formed in 2002, who play a rowdy, drummerless blend of folk, blues, country, ragtime, and rockabilly with the attitude of a punk band. Pete Bernhard sings and plays guitar, Cooper McBean adds guitar and banjo, and Lucia Turino anchors it all on upright bass, generating a huge, stomping sound from three acoustic instruments.
Their songs are full of drinking, gambling, sin, and the devil, delivered with dark humor and irresistible energy. Marcel points to them as an example of the folk-punk wing of alternative grass, the acts that took roots instruments and aimed them squarely at a rock crowd, and they have built a fiercely devoted cult following doing exactly that.
Three acoustic instruments, one very loud band.From Vermont to Santa Cruz
The Story
Their story is one of a cult band that built a following the hard way, through relentless, riotous live shows.
The crossroads mythology that runs through their songs.
2002
Formed in Santa Cruz
Friends originally from Vermont came together in California and released their self-titled debut.
2000s
A cult following
Through constant touring and rowdy live shows, the band built a devoted grassroots audience.
2009
Do Wrong Right
A breakout record that widened their reach and captured their sinful, rollicking sound.
2016
Redemption & Ruin
An album of classic sin-and-salvation songs with guests including Emmylou Harris, honoring their roots.
2018
Chains Are Broken
They added drums and a rockier edge, pushing their folk-punk sound in new directions.
Three Recordings, One Introduction
Start Here
These three are the fastest way to hear the band: the signature ode to whiskey, the fan favorite, and the breakout.
01 · The Signature
"Old Number 7"
Their beloved ode to Jack Daniels, a rollicking singalong and the perfect introduction. Start here.
02 · The Fan Favorite
"The Plank"
A driving, dark-humored favorite that shows the band's punk energy.
03 · The Breakout
"Do Wrong Right"
The title track of their breakout album, all swagger and swing.
The Catalog
The Essential Records 4 to start with
Four records tracing the band from its raw debut to its fuller later sound.
2002
The Devil Makes Three
The raw, rowdy debut, the band's sound already fully formed. Start here.
The Devil Makes Three prove Marcel's point about alternative grass perfectly: this is roots music defined by attitude and presentation as much as by tradition. They play old forms, ragtime, country blues, string-band music, but they play them with the sweat, volume, and irreverence of a punk show. No drummer, three acoustic instruments, and yet they can make a room full of people stomp and holler like a hardcore band. The energy is the message.
Underneath the rowdiness is a real love of American vernacular music. Pete Bernhard's songs are steeped in the imagery of the old weird America, whiskey and card games, sinners and preachers, the devil at the crossroads, delivered with a wink but built on genuine knowledge of the blues and folk tradition. Their 2016 album Redemption & Ruin, a collection of classic sin-and-salvation songs recorded with guests like Emmylou Harris, made that reverence explicit.
Their importance is in showing a young, rock-and-punk-raised audience that this old music was theirs too, that a banjo and an upright bass could be as wild and cathartic as electric guitars. Alongside bands like the .357 String Band and Trampled by Turtles, they helped define a rowdy, punk-inflected corner of the roots-music world, and their devoted following proves how hungry people were for exactly that.
The saloon world the band's songs inhabit.The Roots of the Sound
Influences
The Devil Makes Three drew on the deep well of blues, folk, and outlaw country. These are the sources.
The King of the Delta Blues
Robert Johnson
The crossroads mythology and country-blues at the heart of the band's world.
