DEKE DICKERSON, SHAUN YOUNG, WILLIE BARRY

Deke Dickerson’s newest band venture is Deke Dickerson and the Whippersnappers. Dickerson is a veteran of the Southern California roots music scene and has toured for years with various bands, including the Dave and Deke Combo and Deke Dickerson and the Ecco-Fonics. His former band members have gone on to play with Social Distortion, X, Tiger Army, and Los Straitjackets.

The Whippersnappers are an energetic backing band of younger musicians from Los Angeles: Bert Avalos on guitar, Zander Griffith on bass, and Dylan Patterson on drums. With Dickerson’s experience entertaining audiences worldwide and the Whippersnappers’ shot in the arm of rockabilly excitement, the band has been thrilling fans all over the United States (playing such festivals as Viva Las Vegas and touring the East and West Coasts) and Europe (at festivals like the Rockabilly Rave in England and the Rockin’ Race Jamboree in Spain).

The band released their debut album, Honky Tonkin’ Rhythm, in 2023 on Major Label Records and have been touring behind it since.

Dickerson is the author of Sixteen Tons: The Merle Travis Story (BMG Books, 480 pages), the first-ever full-length biography devoted to Country Music Hall of Fame member Merle Travis, a brilliant, multitalented, and deeply troubled artist who is widely considered a genius. He has also had two books published by Voyageur Press, The Strat in the Attic and The Strat in the Attic 2. As a well-known historian of roots music, Dickerson has contributed liner notes to reissue projects for such labels as Capitol, RCA, Bear Family, and Sundazed, and has written for several guitar magazines.

In 2019 Dickerson won the Ameripolitan Music Award for Musician of the Year.