Kanton Teen and The Penny Pickers

Kanton Washington was born and raised in the shadow of Camp Gruber in Braggs, Oklahoma. High atop the southwestern edge of the Ozark Plateau in eastern Muskogee County, Braggs proved a more than appropriate atmosphere for Washington to develop his love of music. A citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, he started playing guitar at the tender age of seven years-old when his father gifted him his first flat top after the untimely and tragic passing of his mother. Soon enough, a busy high school life diverted his attention from the instrument. He played football, baseball, and wrestled during his time in high school graduating in 2019. Shortly after graduation, Washington joined the United States Navy. It was during his time in the Navy that Washington reignited his love for music and playing. As a matter of fact, it was long months on deployment that allowed him to not only hone is musicianship, but also when he wrote his first song and began singing. In 2023, after playing many solo acoustic shows, Washington decided it was time to form a band, Kanton Teen and the Penny Pickers.

The person responsible for driving the ramblin’ wreck that is Kanton Teen and The Penny Pickers is Gore, Oklahoma native Will Shepherd. Shepherd stated he started drumming about ten years ago after a stint of playing guitar. “I started playing guitar when I was ten years-old by playing old country and bluegrass. But when I was about 14, my cousin Lance Roark (yes THAT Lance Roark) turned me on to Lynyrd Skynyrd and Southern Rock. I switched to drums and began studying guys like Bob Burns, The Reverend, and Steve Gadd. Later on, I started my first band, and, although we parted ways, I was hooked. I put one of my bands, Red Shepherd, together because I had to do it. I have no choice but to make music…it is what I was born to do.” He joined Kanton Teen and the Penny Pickers upon the band’s founding.

Enter Dalton Wagner...the axe slingin', strat rippin" (and sometimes a Tele) dude from Wagoner County...specifically Broken Arrow. He attended BA High School and received his GED after his Junior Year. He has played guitar since he was 17 years old and is heavily influenced by the Blues genre. He came up listening to the likes of Stevie Ray Vaughn, Fenton Robinson, and Roy Buchanan to name a few. He was a wrestler while in high school and has played with several popular acts in Oklahoma.

Patrick Pierce, also a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and native of Braggs, Oklahoma, is a 2011 graduate and Salutatorian of Braggs High School. He received an academic scholarship to attend Connors State College in Warner, OK after high school. He began his career in the music business in 2013 as the Merchandise Manager for Hank Williams, Jr., a position he holds presently. He started playing music at the age of 15 and serves as the rhythm guitarist for the band. That being said, he cuts a MEAN lead as well, and shows the skill on various songs.

Self-described as “long in the tooth and short in the straddle,” Russ Jones of Maple, Oklahoma plays bass guitar for Kanton Teen and the Penny Pickers and has since day one. Jones, Cherokee and Catawba, played bluegrass music all over the U.S. and parts of Canada in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and also plays bass guitar for Mason Jar Revival. He has shared the stage with Little Texas, Blackberry Smoke, Turnpike Troubadours, Bo Phillips, Old Crow Medicine Show, Kacey Musgraves, and Merle Haggard to name a few. He began playing the bass guitar in 1988 during his Senior year of high school (yeah, he is ANCIENT). He also plays guitar, banjo, mandolin, and dulcimer. Heavily influenced by Thrash Metal gunslingers Dave Mustaine, Kerry King, and Kurdt Vanderhoof as well as Southern rockers Duane Allman, Allen Collins, and Ed King, Jones mixes feel with speed to make his way haphazardly around the bass neck. He was formerly signed by Tranquility Records of Lexington, KY, and is currently signed by Rock Avenue Records as part of Mason Jar Revival.