Today we’d like to introduce you to Brittain Duckworth.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Whiskey Feathers began almost 14 years ago as a duo with myself, Brittain Duckworth, on vocals, rhythm guitar, and songwriting, and Jenny Fitchett on keys and vocals. We were playing covers and a limited number of original songs around Baltimore County and quickly grew into a trio with Johnny Grape joining us on harmonica. Over the years, the songwriting evolved, and we gradually began moving more seriously toward original music.
In 2020, with the help of some talented session musicians and studio engineers, we released our first single, “Enchanted.” The song found a surprisingly warm reception around the region and began receiving regular airplay on WTMD 89.7 FM. That gave us a real sense that there might be something bigger to build.
In early 2022, Whiskey Feathers evolved into a six-piece with Brittain, Jenny, Luke Chohany our maestro and song doctor on lead guitar, Jon “Bass Lord of Baltimore” Schroeder on bass, EJ Thompson on drums and percussion, and Kyndal Gehlbach on violin and vocals. We made a deliberate shift toward focusing almost entirely on original material, with the occasional cover sprinkled in, and started moving away from bars and breweries toward ticketed venues and festivals.
In 2023, we released our 12-song debut album, Stardust a Garden. That same year, “Enchanted” was voted #49 on WTMD’s Top 89 Songs of 2023, alongside artists like Wilco, The National, Hozier, Jenny Lewis, and boygenius. We were also invited to perform at WTMD’s June First Thursday Festival in front of a record crowd of more than 13,000 people. That experience really put us on our current path.
Since then, we’ve become known for dynamic songwriting, storytelling, high-energy performances, and a lot of interaction with the crowd. Some of our favorite performance highlights have included playing the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall for United Way of Central Maryland’s Centennial Benefit Concert featuring Common, Ramble Festival, Kipona Fest, and Monkton Music Festival. We’ve also had the opportunity to open for artists from DC to Philly, including Eddie 9V, Parker Barrow, Eric Hutchinson, Joe P, Pressing Strings, Sam Morrow, The Young Dubliners, Hackensaw Boys, and a growing roster of artists we really admire.
Most recently, we’ve come full circle with Andrew Young joining Whiskey Feathers on drums and percussion. Andrew was actually the original session drummer on “Enchanted,” so it’s pretty special to now have him bringing his talents, creativity, and energy to the band.
Our new single, “The Awakening,” comes out August 28, 2026, along with a music video that the band shot, produced, and edited ourselves. We’re also gearing up to record our sophomore album: 10 songs over roughly five days in early September with Steve Wright at Wright Way Studios in the Remington neighborhood of Baltimore. We may need an additional day to button everything up, but the goal is to have it all recorded and ready for mixing and mastering. We’re still figuring out the release timeline because we want to give the album the time and attention it deserves when it comes out.
Interestingly, 2026 has been a year of evolution for the band both musically and behind the scenes. Everyone has been all over the place this year. Jon went to Japan, Andrew went to Brazil, Jenny went to Alaska, Luke spent time at the lakes and beaches, and I (Brittain) went to Peru. With everyone’s travel and schedules, our availability for shows has been more limited this summer. We essentially had to choose between trying to play as many shows as possible or using the time to prepare for the next album, and we made what felt like the obvious choice.
That decision also connects to one of the biggest creative shifts I’ve experienced as a songwriter. In August 2025, I attended Steve Poltz’s Song Factory songwriting camp. I had been watching Steve perform at DelFest in May and heard him mention this immersive songwriting retreat featuring instruction and collaboration from Steve Poltz, Mary Gauthier, Bob Schneider, and Ryan Montbleau. I’m not typically an impulsive person, but something in my gut told me I had to be there. I turned to my wife and said, very matter-of-factly, “I think I have to go to this.” She said, “Okay, you should go” So I went.
That experience genuinely changed my life. I don’t think that’s an understatement. There’s a distinct shift, almost a monumental explosion, in my writing when I look at the period before and after the camp. It changed my approach, gave me new tools and techniques, and completely expanded the way I think about songwriting and creative dynamics.
One of the most unexpected and meaningful parts was the community that came out of it. There were a little over 30 songwriters from around the country, and Bob Schneider challenged us to form our own songwriting group using the same basic structure and rules that he, Steve, and their songwriting circle have followed for the past 20 years. Bob told us, “If you make it to one year, you might have two great songs out of fifty-two.”
The concept is simple but brutal in the best possible way. Each week, the group leader provides a prompt, something like “Fine Line,” and you have to write a song incorporating those words and submit a demo by around midnight Tuesday. If you miss a week, aside from your one mulligan or a medical emergency, you’re out and you don’t get the next prompt.
We started with about 30 people and are down to 15 as we approach our one-year anniversary. That means most of us will have nearly 52 songs to show for the year. It has challenged, and sometimes forced, all of us to keep the creative wheels turning. Some weeks you’re just trying to stay alive and make it to the next. Other weeks, something really special comes out of it.
The point isn’t that every song is going to be good. It’s repetition, accountability, experimentation, and honing your craft by actually doing the work. The prompts have pushed me into creative territory I never would have explored on my own, and I’m incredibly grateful for that.
In fact, six of the ten songs we’re about to record for the new Whiskey Feathers album came directly from prompts from that songwriting group. I then brought those songs to the band, where we polished and refined them together. So, in a very real way, the next chapter of Whiskey Feathers grew out of that experience.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Ha, is it ever a smooth road for anyone?
Life has been full of struggles, and the band has certainly had some of its own, but comparatively, Whiskey Feathers has been a remarkably stable and productive collective. It’s become a safe place for us to share, process, create, and express what ails us. It’s rarely smooth. Just getting all five of us together regularly and making it to shows on time with everyone’s schedules and the logistics involved can feel like a rocket launch. But somehow, no matter what life and the world throw at us, we always get there. We always make it happen, and together we find creative ways to smooth things out.
We’re also incredibly lucky to have organically clicked and genuinely gotten along both inside and outside of music. That’s a very special thing. Being in a real band creates these out-of-body moments that are nearly impossible to describe in words, even to the people closest to you. I played sports growing up, so I understand the team element, but there’s something different about playing music together. When we play a song for the first time, perform a big show, or capture a hot take in the studio, there are these brief moments when we connect and plug into something bigger than our individual selves. We create a little bit of magic together that speaks to our souls, and hopefully soothes the souls of the folks listening as well.
The music is the vessel, but the connections with each other and our community are the lift and the healing that make it all worth doing. I think our well-being depends on creating and sharing. I know mine does.
It’s such a specific and uniquely shared experience within a small collective that I’ve sometimes compared the bond and camaraderie of being in a band to astronauts. We all know what astronauts do, but they share a unique bond and experiences that most of us can never fully understand. Only a very small number of people ever get to experience it. I think being in a band can be like that.
On a more personal level, I’ve been very open about my struggles with heavy drinking and sobriety, and it’s no coincidence that the growth and expansion of Whiskey Feathers closely align with my path to sobriety. There probably wouldn’t be a band, and perhaps I wouldn’t be sitting here talking to you today, without it.
Getting sober has been the greatest gift of my life and allowed me a fresh start. I think differently, I feel differently, I look different, I act differently. I am different, and I’m grateful for all of it.
I heard recently that joy is the fruit of well-lived grief, and man, does that hit home. If I hadn’t lived through those experiences, taken them in, accepted them, and eventually understood them, I don’t think I would experience joy as prevalently or as richly as I do today.
I’ll be five years sober on September 12th, and the gift keeps giving.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Whiskey Feathers is a Baltimore indie rock band blending rock, Americana, and alternative rock into an immersive sound rooted in positivity, togetherness, and shared human experience. We’re proud of staying true to ourselves. We don’t want to intentionally sound like anyone else. We just want to sound uniquely like ourselves and the sum of our individual superpowers that combine to make Whiskey Feathers. There are five of us, each bringing something different to the table, so I sometimes joke that we’re basically Captain Planet. We each bring our own element, and when we combine those powers, something bigger than any one of us emerges.
But seriously, by sharing our individual talents, creativity, ideas, and time with each other, we cast spells, melt words and chords, and pour it all into one-of-a-kind art. Our music feels handmade by design. We don’t use backing tracks, samples, or loops. We play it all and sing it all. It’s timeless with a modern edge, reflective lyrics, layered textures, and a dreamlike energy that hopefully moves both the heart and the hips.
Our bass player Jon calls our sound “prog-rock Americana.” Some people say indie or alternative depending on the song. I’m not exactly sure where we technically fall in the genre bins, but I’m happy just being us.
We’re also true makers at heart, and Whiskey Feathers extends our artistry beyond the stage through our motto, “Handmade Music & Handmade Merch.” My wife, Kim, who is our tour manager, and I (Brittain) are experienced potters, and together we make the band’s handmade feather and bird-themed ceramics that we sell at shows.
Pottery has become a meditative creative outlet for me. It takes my full attention and lets me zoom in and work with my hands. It scratches a different creative itch than music does. The transformation is more immediate. There’s a primitive earth connection to going from mud to something made on the pottery wheel. It’s still a kind of call and response, but this time it’s between my hands and the clay.
With a song, I can share an idea or emotion, but with pottery I can physically hold the thing I made and share that intention through my hands and literal fingerprints. Clay starts out delicate and malleable, but once it’s fired and glazed, it becomes a durable little piece of memory, an extension of me and the time I spent making it, and if cared for, could last for thousands of years.
I actually wrote a line about that idea in one of my songwriting-group songs, written from the prompt “fossils”:
“Broken glass bottles, pottery and fossils, is the proof that we were ever here at all. When we’re long dead and forgotten, buried in our coffins, it’s the proof that we were ever here at all.”
It should also be said that the “Handmade Music & Handmade Merch” idea really is a family affair. Our family in New Hampshire develops and hand-screens the band’s shirts and tote bags, while my sister-in-law, Lisa, who also manages our merch, designs and crafts feather jewelry and supports the band with her creative eye for photography and videography. My sister, Sarah, also helps bring our visual identity to life by editing and polishing our cover art and photos. Every piece, image, and creative contribution is made with the same care and intention as our songs.
For us, it’s all part of the same creative ecosystem. Music, pottery, jewelry, clothing, visual art, and the community around Whiskey Feathers all blur together. We like making intentional things with our hands, sharing them with our community, and creating something that didn’t exist before in the hope that it adds something meaningful to the world around us.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
You have to take ’em. A ship in harbor is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for. I think we’re made to push our limits and boundaries, to stretch ourselves, grow, and reshape those boundaries in the process. Being an artist is risky. Being in a band is risky. Truly expressing yourself is risky.
The real risk is sharing your true self and being vulnerable enough to do it. But there’s freedom on the other side of that leap, and I think that’s what most of us are after: authentic and genuine people, experiences, stories, songs, and art. A favorite Rick Rubin quote of mine is something to the effect of, “Sharing your art is the price of making it, and exposing your vulnerability is the fee.”
Being in a band and playing live is also a risky trust exercise. You rely on each other to show up, and every song is another trust fall. We trust that each of us will be there to perform our part, rise and fall together, listen to each other, and deliver our individual musical promises so that we can create something dynamic and tight from beginning to end.
This whole thing is an exercise in risk and vulnerability. How far you’re willing to go is ultimately up to you. But I think the willingness to take that leap, whether in art or in life, is where the real growth happens.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://whiskeyfeathers.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thewhiskeyfeathers/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheWhiskeyFeathers
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@whiskeyfeathers
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2TU6MuVsinrG0P5WZx61WN?si=V6BYNJ5fQzi7KFLxRWYzmw
