Seth Woods has been making music as The Whiskey Priest since 2005. He grew up in Houston, Texas, where he spent his childhood and adolescence singing songs and learning guitar. Like many musicians in the South, Seth honed his craft early on in his local church, playing (and then leading) the music for the weekly gatherings of the youth ministry. After two years at a local Christian college, Seth dropped out of school and moved to Austin to pursue music. It was there that The Whiskey Priest was born. Thematically, Seth's lyrics deal heavily with the intersection of an upbringing in religious culture and the experiences of stepping out into a larger, more diverse world. How does one have faith throughout this transition, and in what? How has religious life in America strengthened our ability to see, interact with, and love those around us whose lives look different than ours? How has it impaired us from being a part of the World? The Whiskey Priest's most recent full length album, Mean Spirit, looks at the need for love and the inability to maintain connection - in community and in individual relationships; the religious impulse as both a help and a hinderance to a healthy self identity; the relationship between words and what those words represent (as metaphor); and most significantly, the longing to look beyond cultural and religious dogma and see life for what it truly is. The album ends with this petition: "what IS - show to me what IS." Since moving to Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2011, Seth has been performing The Whiskey Priest's music as a one-man band. Combining multiple effect pedals, looping devices, and vocal effects, as well as playing a suitcase and tambourine "drum kit" with foot pedals, The Whiskey Priest shows have broadened sonically far beyond the sound of a folk singer and a guitar. Seth has played shows in Wales, Scotland, England, and Spain. 2016 marks the ten year anniversary of a life changing journey Seth took with his friend and musical collaborator Alex Dupree in 2006 - the two spent three and a half months driving across the United States, camping in national and state parks, visiting friends and staying with strangers, and playing shows in bars, coffee shops, back yards, new york lofts, and just about anywhere else they could. They went to 37 states, spoke with Amish leather workers, Katrina flood survivors, San Franciscan hippies, and aging local musical legends. It was a life changing experience for Seth, the first of many. "The Whiskey Priest took a sweet long time to create Mean Spirit, a gorgeous masterpiece of emotional vocals, introspective lyrics and lavish music." - sloucher.org "I was utterly mesmerised, it was one of those incredible moments in life when everything but the music melts away and nothing else in those five minutes exists… Music that has the power to silence an entire, previously quite noisy, bar is really something in my view. Music that has the power to keep a bar quiet is something to behold." - neverenoughnotes.co.uk "This isn’t an album you stick on in the background whilst frying some chicken or whatever. This needs time and thought and requires you to actually listen to it and if you try and resist I can promise you that one of these tracks will pull you in and before you know it an hour has passed and you have no idea what just happened but you know it’s amazing." - A Case of Sonic Attack (review of The Whiskey Priest's debut album 'Wave and Cloud') "Woods' vocal style calls to mind the approach of a singer like Jeff Buckley, one for whom the voice is not simply an instrument but an outlet of emotional expression… ‘Wave and Cloud’ deserves your attention at a time when it is becoming increasingly difficult to locate genuine musical talent and emotional honesty in singer songwriting." - Americana UK