This is part of our ongoing series on musicians who perform in The Berkshires.
The Whiskey Treaty Roadshow is a collaborative band that brings together five Massachusetts singer-songwriters in the vein of Americana, rock, and folk music. The collective is made up of songwriters Tory Hanna, Billy Keane, Chris Merenda, Greg Daniel Smith, and David Tanklefsky. The band has been together for almost a decade and has performed at acclaimed festivals, including Green River Festival, FreshGrass, The Kate Wolf Memorial Music Festival, and more.
The band has two upcoming performances in The Berkshires next week: Mountain Day with The Whiskey Treaty Roadshow at Bousquet on Saturday, July 22nd, and the evening before, they will perform at the Egremont Barn. In advance of these upcoming shows, I had the chance to catch up with all five band members over Zoom to learn more about them and their musical journey. Our conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.
Can you tell us how the band originally came together?
Tory Hanna: It goes back to 2013. My wife Susie Hanna had been friendly with all these guys, and she was fairly friendly with me at the time, even though we weren’t yet married. She loved our songwriting and musicianship and was inspired to get us in front of more people and help us grow and expand our audiences. She had this idea to create a festival where we’d all come under one roof and perform to expand the audience fivefold. And it was hugely successful. She thought of a pretty cool name – she noticed that all of us, as songwriters individually, often talk about whiskey, which is a drink of Western Mass and other places. The word Treaty came from us coming together and being part of something. So the Whiskey Treaty Festival was formed in 2013. We did two years in a row and sold out this venue in Greenfield, Massachusetts – it was formerly called The Arts Block. It was Billy’s idea to then take this show on the road. We just had so much fun. So we kind of let our bands go and formed sort of a supergroup, the five frontmen of these projects – and The Whiskey Treaty Roadshow was born.
Chris Merenda: For the record, I joined about a year later.
David Tanklefsky: Chris is still the new guy after eight years.
Tory Hanna: It was one very, very late-night show where Chris more than proved himself. I think the next day, Billy was like, “I think Chris Merenda is the best thing that ever happened to the band.” And he was so right.
David Tanklefsky: The other part of it is that Tory has a friend from childhood who was a filmmaker, and he came on that initial tour with us. We knew Tim [Bradley] a little bit, but we were like, “Oh, right – he can come film whatever he wants.” And he ended up being talented beyond our wildest dreams. His 30-minute documentary about songwriting was entered into a lot of film festivals, and then a lot of those festivals wanted the band to come play, and at that time, we really didn’t think of it as something that would go on after those four nights. So Tim is a huge part of it, too, for getting us in front of those audiences. And we said, “Well, I guess there’s a band now because people want us to play at their film festivals.”
You have a big performance coming up on July 22: The Mountain Day with The Whiskey Treaty Roadshow at Bosquet Mountain. What can fans expect at this show? Do you have anything special planned for it?
Chris Merenda: We’re going to release our new CD, which will be available on all streaming platforms, and we’ll have some physical CDs and vinyl available.
Tory Hanna: And your brother’s band is coming.
Chris Merenda: Yes, The Mammals will be there as a headliner, which is my brother Mike Merenda and his wife, Ruth Ungar Merenda. They helped me get my feet wet in the touring music world from 2003 to 2009. I toured with the Mammals as their drummer. We went everywhere – a lot of great old-time traditional and original songwriting. So it’s definitely part of what’s made me the banjo player that I am today, playing music with those fiddle and banjo players all around the country, traveling, and just taking it all in. It definitely was a very inspiring time. I hope I keep some of that with me with the Whisky Treaty – some of the traditional old-timey feel that we sometimes had.
Greg Daniel Smith: Can I add something there? So when Chris joined the band, he gave us some songs to learn. I said, “Wow, it sounds just like The Mammals,” who I loved and listened to for many years. And I looked him up, and he was in the Mammals – it was really funny.
David Tanklefsky: This is our second year doing it. We’ve played a lot of music festivals over the years and have been lucky enough to play with many great bands. We always felt like we could do our own festival and wanted something that would set it apart from some other festivals we love. The first year was awesome. And I think this year, we’ll just be building that out. We want there to be components of community – thinking about what this band is really about. The Berkshires community has obviously been so supportive of us, so we involve them. We want to involve the beauty of The Berkshires – so there are some recreational activities. There are family-friendly activities, obviously great music, and then there are ways to put the spotlight back on some of the organizations, people, and bands that we really love. I think that was definitely present in the first year, and hopefully, we can build that out more this year with more things that make us feel connected to our community. In doing our own festival, we thought about how we could make it creative and make people feel like they’re at a Whiskey Treaty show but an enhanced version of a Whiskey Treaty show. I was really excited that we had proof of concept with that last year, and this year, we hope it will be just a bigger version of it.
Tory Hanna: We hope to double what we did last year. It should be a huge festival. One addition this year: we have a fantastic sponsor coming in from Bennington, Vermont. It’s called Village Garage Distillery, and they make small batch whiskey, bourbon, and vodka. They will be on-site as a sponsor and a partner for this event. Really cool dudes, local dudes.
The evening before the Mountain Day at Bousquet, you have a special event at the Egremont Barn, which is billed as the album release party of your new album Late Night, Laid Back and Live, which will be your fourth full album. I understand much or all of the album was recorded at the Egremont Barn late last year. Can you tell us a bit more about the album and how it came together?
Chris Merenda: Sure, I can give a little background about that. It was during COVID, but we had been talking about all getting together under one roof and workshopping and writing and putting an album together. So I called Jenny [Rubin] back in January of 2022. And I knew they were going to be closed for the winter season. I just asked as kindly as I could if they could open their doors to us so we could all get together and work on some songs and then have it lead up to a two-night performance on Friday and Saturday, performing the material that we had workshopped and written. It went pretty well to the plan. By the Friday show, we had 14 songs all arranged – all original works. In the first set we did on Friday night, we performed the new album – 12 of the 14 tracks. That is what people can look forward to buying or streaming on July 21st and 22nd. It was a lot of fun – a good way to dig in. I think we’d set up the hours of 10 am to 6 pm, Monday through Thursday. On Friday and Saturday, it was a little more loose, worrying about performing the material. It was great for spending time together and bonding and building a relationship with Nick [Keene] and Jenny at The Barn, who were just so gracious, opening their doors and putting us up there and feeding us.
Greg Daniel Smith: This new album also features our first co-writing. All previous works had been written individually or with others, but not collaboratively between us. This was the first time we came together to co-write songs.
You’re all from Massachusetts. Several of you are based here in Western Mass, and you’ve recorded much of your work here in The Berkshires. What makes The Berkshires a special place for you to create and perform music?
Tory Hanna: Dave, you should take that one – you’re kind of the non-Berkshire guy (we’ve been trying to get him to move to the Berkshires).
David Tanklefsky: They’ve been trying for a long time – I love it! It’s been really cool to see how we’ve been embraced by the community in Western Mass. I think that’s because the music is evocative of the area and also because I think it’s struck a chord with people who appreciate the spirit of the band, too. The music is obviously the biggest part, but it’s also about community, camaraderie, and people coming together, and I think those are all things that The Berkshires represent. You can’t help being influenced by the landscape and the people in the places that you are interacting with when you’re writing or performing. Whenever we play in the Berkshires, it feels like we are playing home games – they feel like our home hometown shows. That spirit of collaboration is what kept us going. Chris was talking about the Egremont Barn project, which was really specific to The Barn – those songs came out a certain way because of the room and the people – Nick and Jenny and their staff. And that whole project was basically Chris’s baby. Chris, you had that great idea, and what we love about the band, and I hope people do too, is that when someone has a good idea, we just run with it. There’s truly no leader among the five of us. There’s no person that’s trying more than anyone else to get their musical agenda across. Billy had an amazing idea a couple of years ago to do the covers project to raise money for people that were impacted by COVID – service workers. And he had this idea in his mind that was pretty much fully formed, just like Chris did with this Barn project, and the rest of us had enough trust in each other to say, “Alright, that’s the best idea we have right now. So let’s commit to it.” So the region and, I think, the people definitely influence the band and the philosophy behind the band.
Tory Hanna: It’s cool that our four full-length albums were all recorded in The Berkshires – I’m kind of just realizing it now. The Heart of the Run was recorded in a parking lot – literally a parking lot – in Pittsfield. Band Together and Recovered, which Dave just mentioned, were both recorded at the Stationery Factory in Dalton on two different floors, two different setups. And the Egremont Barn is home to this fantastic live record that’s about to come out. So that is kind of neat. It’s a rich musical community. It really is.
That is a good segue to my next question: Your 2021 album Recovered, which is an album of awesome cover songs, was recorded live at a benefit concert for Berkshire County Service Workers. You chose some amazing songs to cover: The Beatles’ “Let It Be,” U2’s “One,” Nick Lowe’s “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding,” Bruce Springsteen’s “The Rising,” and one of my all-time favorites, “Heroes,” by David Bowie. How did you choose those songs? Was it a collaborative effort? Or did each of you bring one or two favorites to that project? You mentioned that was Billy’s idea, but how did the songs get chosen?
Tory Hanna: Not only Billy’s idea, but Billy produced the record. So hats off, and kudos to him for getting that sonically crafted and curated. I just think that album is so freakin’ unbelievable.
Billy Keane: When I pitched the idea, I encouraged everybody to pick songs. I also had ideas that I wanted to get across – “Sound of Silence” with Chris, for instance, or “One” with Tory. I just had those images in mind, but part of the fun here was people picking tunes that connected with themselves. Greg came to the table with “Peace, Love and Understanding,” which I wasn’t all that familiar with, but some of our fans really honed in on that one. It was a process of narrowing down – more than anything – because you can only fit seven or eight tracks on the record. There’s a lot to choose from, but yeah, that was a fun project.
Chris Merenda: It was another great example of us coming together under one roof for two or three days leading up to the live recording. We worked out the arrangements and liked Billy’s vision. His production notes were very valuable to that project. My Middle school music teacher was at a show, and he was like, “Oh my gosh when I heard you’re Recovered album, that’s when I knew that you guys weren’t kidding around. Just the arrangements you guys had on that – that’s what took me in.” With this band, there are lots of amazing angles and all-star perspectives coming on.
Tory Hanna: Honestly, to be songwriters writing and performing original music – it’s not all that easy. In a way, it’s harder to captivate the hearts and minds of people you’re trying to play for. We want to perform our original music. So this was really unique and out-of-the-box for us. Again, kudos to Billy for taking it on. I think it came out so well – people love these versions that we pulled together – they’re truly iconic songs. I mean, we went for it – all the songs you just mentioned – we went for it. So yeah, Billy killed it with this idea.
David Tanklefsky: Billy has a great vision and curation of that sort of thing – it comes back to trust, where he’s like, “I’d love to hear you take on this song.” The idea of this project was to give people something to uplift them during a tough time. And so, let’s try to come up with songs that represent that and also are pretty much in the popular canon. Maybe [if we do a] Recovered Two, it will be songs from songwriters we love that are much less household names, but this album was songs that people know that give them some comfort in tough times. So, yeah, it’s a testament to [Billy’s] vision. The rest of us had input into it but also weren’t trying to change his vision because it was pretty well thought out.
Your website lists about 10 upcoming dates on your current tour schedule, all here in New England. Do you have any additional dates planned or any tour plans for going outside of New England?
Tory Hanna: Possibly Ireland for next year – our “Treaty 10” celebration for the 10th year this band has been together, which is just amazing. We’ve got a packed year, and we just released that tour schedule with some fantastic shows. That’s pretty much the year – there’ll be some additions, I would think, but that’s pretty much our geography. Next year, we may go above and beyond, you know, “infinity and beyond.”
Chris Merenda: A “Buzz Lightyear” tour!
Greg Daniel Smith: I think we are looking at some dates in New York, Philadelphia, and New Jersey for early winter or late fall.
David Tanklefsky: Yes, mid-Atlantic in late November. And we did do a couple of runs out to the West Coast just before COVID. We did a couple of things through the Midwest, so we’d love to get back there at some point. The post-COVID years so far have really been about solidifying our audiences.
Now that you know you’ve gained widespread critical acclaim and a cult following, do you see The Whiskey Treaty Roadshow as a band staying together and recording into the foreseeable future?
Chris Merenda: I do!
Tory Hanna: Absolutely, Man. Yeah, absolutely!
Chris Merenda: Yeah, it’s weird to me when people, in general, are like, “Oh, you can’t do this forever. You’ll have to retire at some point.” But I see music as something you can really do until the day you die. I really don’t see why not. How long will the Treaty last? I don’t think anybody’s put that end date in their calendar.
Tory Hanna: We have been through quite a bit together. 10 years of driving all over the place. All the planning. There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes to make even a single show happen with five guys – and we’re seven in total with our full band. So it’s a big project, with management and all the aspects that go into running a business. So there’s been a lot of stuff that’s happened behind the scenes, and we are friends – we’re bros, and we like each other. It’s a really fun time. It’s a family. So I don’t think that we have any plans to go anywhere.
David Tanklefsky: When we started, we were mostly single guys, and I don’t think any of us had kids. Now there’s a bunch of kids. It’s been really cool to watch the band evolve on its own time. And we didn’t go right to the top of the charts, so maybe that gives us some more longevity since we built this thing over time, and it’s evolved as our lives have. I think we have a lot of confidence in each other. Maybe we’ll be touring more heavily in a year or two, or maybe we’ll be doing 10 big gigs, so we’re pretty open to what the future holds because, as Tory said, we’ve been through a lot.
Greg Daniel Smith: That’s well said, Dave. We’re adaptable, I guess is the way I would put it, and I hope we continue to be adaptable. And that may mean growing or taking a lighter year in between, or whatever.
Tory Hanna: I think the group, collectively and individually, has not anticipated or expected or really put a lot of weight into what our growth trajectory has been. We’re just doing it because we love each other. And we’re a family, and we love songwriting, and we love the shows that we put on, and it’s just so fun! We walk away from every show saying, “That was awesome!” Every single show, even if there are some hiccups. But we haven’t really anticipated or expected the growth, but every year this band gets bigger and has more reach and more influence. This is amazing to watch every single calendar year.
Greg Daniel Smith: One thing that stands out to me, especially in the last couple of years, is hearing from people who watch us say things like, “That was your best show. “ And then you hear it again six months later, and you keep hearing it, and that’s encouraging.
David Tanklefsky: The other day at the Green River Festival, we were sitting backstage and hearing from musicians that we really respect – some of them were familiar with the band but had not seen us before, and they were like, “We are so excited to finally see you guys – I know you’ve been working at it for a long time.” That’s super-gratifying: musicians that you respect have heard of you and want to see your show and are hearing good things about it. That’s another extra feather in the cap.
You can learn more about The Whiskey Treat Roadshow at thewhiskeytreaty.com. You can find their music on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify and Youtube. You can also follow them on Instagram and Facebook.