Legendary Shack Shakers keep it rocking

To hear the frontman/founder J.D. Wilkes tell it, the high-energy show that built the reputation of the punk/blues band has more firepower than ever.

“All four of us have that kind of work ethic,” Wilkes said. “It is like we are in the trenches. This isn’t a glamorous, ‘American Idol’ kind of thing. We are doing it because we have been there and been in the audiences [at others’ concerts] and know what it’s like to go to a show and have it suck.”

Now touring with new member Duane Denison, formerly of Jesus Lizard, the band’s new album, “AgriDustrial,” has some experimental guitar sounds that will bring a whole new feel to some of the Shack Shakers’ music. Not that the band, which formed in the mid-1990s, forces anything. One reason for its ever-expanding fan base — which famously includes Robert Plant and Stephen King — is the band never presents a false voice, quite a feat when you consider the formats in which it dabbles. “Duane plays with metal through the guitar strings, and the sounds are like motors, trains, weird kinds of cacophonous things,” Wilkes said. “We kept saying the word ‘agridustrial’ and it just seemed natural, rootsy. Johnny Cash used train sounds, train rhythms, and we expanded on that notion with … rustic sounds reminiscent of rural labor and industry. We’re taking what Johnny Cash did, but taking it in a more grinding Duane Denison direction.”

That just makes this band — which began as rockabilly and quickly shifted into a more blues/punk/rock mode — even more of a moving target, with critics scrambling to label it. One reason that it doesn’t quite fit in a category is because the music forms from all that has come before.

“It’s just Americana, roots,” Wilkes said. “I say rock ‘n’ roll because to me that’s blues, country and rhythm and blues, honky tonk. We say, ‘Well, we use blues, but why can’t it be Chicago blues or Delta blues or blues from the North Mississippi Hill Country?’ There are so many flavors of American music. We were even mixing in Texas polka for a while.”

The goal, for Wilkes, is to present music that captures an essence and touches listeners in a visceral way. That’s the music he enjoys, too.

“I like music from bands that are like us, that are pulling from esoteric influences so are limited in how far they can professionally,” he said, naming the Pine Hill Haints, Scott Byron and bands he calls left-of-country. “They are painting with a different pallet of colors, and you either capture that old-time spirit in a bottle, or you don’t.”