Guitarist Jake Lentner Joins Chris Claridy in Cody Jinks Band

Jake Lentner / Chris Claridy / Cody Jinks

Like so many of the great country artists of our time, one of the reasons for the consistent success of Cody Jinks has been the band behind him affectionately known as the Tonedeaf Hippies. Consisting of steel guitarist Austin “Hot Rod” Tripp, bassist Joshua Thompson, keys and occasionally acoustic guitar player Drew Harakal, drummer David Colvin, and the venerable Chris Claridy on guitar, the quality of this lineup is one of the reasons Cody Jinks has remained at the top of his game over the last few years.

We probably don’t make a big enough deal about how significant it is that Chris Claridy is in the Cody Jinks band. A long time veteran of independent country, Claridy was touring with the recently-passed Chris Wall back in the 90’s, and then joined up with the legendary Dallas band Eleven Hundred Springs in the early 2000’s. Having Claridy in the band was sort of like Waylon Jennings carrying Ralph Mooney in his band—an elder statesman of country that brings credibility to the outfit.

But the Cody Jinks backing band has been featuring a new member lately, a second guitarist named Jake Lentner. Originally from the small town of Chesterfield, MA, he was mostly a rock guitarist who shared the stage with bands like Apocalyptica, Saving Abel, Pop Evil, and Candlebox until he moved to Nashville where he started rubbing elbows with the country crowd as well, along with performing as a solo artist.

Jake Lentner’s ability to cross between the country and rock realm is what makes him such a perfect fit for the band of Cody Jinks moving forward. On November 12th, Cody Jinks will not only release his latest country record called Mercy, he’ll be releasing a metal album called None The Wiser under the band name Caned By Nod. As many long time Cody Jinks fans know, the Fort Worth native came up in music playing in metal bands before converting to country.

It remains to be seen after Cody Jinks officially releases the Caned By Nod project, if his live shows will feature a full set of the heavier music, or if he’ll only feature a few songs from it, or perhaps he’ll do a Caned By Nod tour exclusively. Either way, Jake Lentner is now on board to help in whatever way he can.

And meanwhile, Lentner is contributing well to the country material too as Saving Country Music observed recently at Born and Raised Fest, playing rhythm guitar and muted stuff on many of Cody’s songs, sometimes acoustic guitar, and upon occasion sharing solo duties with Chris Claridy, and embracing his spot as the 2nd guitarist, at least with the country stuff. Jake Lentner also filled in exclusively on guitar recently when Claridy missed a show or two in August.

Cody Jinks, Chris Claridy, Jake Lentner, and the rest of the Tonedeaf Hippies will be holding court this weekend at the Nutty Brown Ampitheater in Austin with Travis Tritt, September 25th and 26th.

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