The Band Reeves is a dynamic musical duo composed of brothers, Jeramy and Cody Reeves
You can hear tires on the gravel road before headlights ever come into view in the place Jeramy and Cody Reeves call home. The brothers — respectively married with families of their own — share a plot of land with their parents in East Texas. The siblings are third generation construction workers, but that’s just their day job. Their true calling is music, and one they walk out through the ministry of Band Reeves, a hybrid of acoustic-grounded storytelling and spiritually fueled country that has taken a surprising turn, buying them a ticket to travel the country and eventually landing them a label deal with Centricity Music.
When they weren’t spending their childhood outside bowfishing, bowhunting or playing in the creek, Jeramy and Cody were at church. Their dad was a pastor, and they were a part of the fabric of that small congregation before they could walk. Music was something they always enjoyed, but not something they were necessarily serious about.
Cody sang his first church solo when he was three; Jeramy picked up the guitar at 12. Through the years, the preacher’s kids started leading worship together and eventually writing songs. “Growing up, we were just so different,” Jeramy says of the relationship he shares with his younger brother. “In a lot of ways, music was the glue that kept us together. And though there was friction sometimes, now I consider Cody to be my best friend.”
It was only after Jeramy had a transformational encounter with Christ that the pair decided to pursue music wholeheartedly. Although he made a public profession of faith at 12, it wasn’t until he was 23 that Jeramy experienced a real relationship with Jesus. “I made a lot of stupid decisions as a teenager,” he admits. “I was walking further and further away from what I knew was true.”
Meanwhile, Jeramy’s wife had a life-changing encounter with the Lord at 18, the same year they were married. “I just watched God radically change her, and that challenged me in a lot of ways,” the oldest Reeves brother reflects, “in the way she was living and handling our marriage, and in the way she could forgive and move forward.”
When divorce entered the conversation, Jeramy found himself at a crossroads. After digging into the Bible and examining the theology behind different religious schools of thought, he made a personal decision to genuinely follow Jesus. “I got on my knees at two o’clock in the morning, put my face in the gravel; and I just told God, ‘I don’t know what happened to me when I was 12 years old, but I know where I’m sitting right now,’” he remembers. “I asked God to save me, and when I stood up from that little heart-to-heart with Jesus, God started radically changing me, and He healed my marriage.”
Today, Jeramy, and his wife have been married for 14 years; and his conversion story is written into the lived-in lyrics of Band Reeves’ debut song, “Outrun You,” a backwoods-flavored, harmony-laced first offering. “God is so persistent, even when we are running away from Him,” Jeramy attests. “Ultimately, you can’t outrun the Lord; you’re always going to continue running into Him, over and over. I’m just thankful He continued to chase me and Cody, both.”
These days, Jeramy and Cody are chasing kids. Jeramy is the father of eight; Cody is the father of two. In the midst of loud, chaotic family life, the men have come to recognize the importance of starting their day in God’s Word. That’s why they wrote “Front Porch Church,” to remind themselves how to recalibrate when life feels overwhelming. “‘Front Porch Church’ is really based off the idea of starting every morning by having a moment with Jesus, spending some time reading the Bible, praying and being still before the Lord,” Cody explains.
Meanwhile, “Big Shoes” is a sentimental ode to the Reeves patriarch, a lifelong bivocational minister and, as “the ultimate outdoorsman,” the man who taught his sons to hunt and fish. “He made everything adventurous and constantly made us laugh,” Jeramy fondly recalls. “He’s a very powerful leader; people love him. Gosh, I can’t speak highly enough of our dad. He has influenced everything about who we are.”
“He’s the man I want to be,” Cody echoes. “My dad modeled what it looked like to be a godly husband and a godly father, how to take care of your wife and provide for your family. He also really instilled the value of hard work in us.”
The brothers’ unparalleled work ethic is immediately evident in their tanned skin and calloused hands, and that same work ethic translates into their ardent pursuit of music. In a sense, they’re filling their father’s “big shoes,” carrying on his tradition of bivocational ministry in an unconventional way. Even as signed artists, they work construction full time — a profession that allows them the consistency to provide for their families and the flexibility to play gigs on the weekends.
“We’re going to keep dirt, sawdust and paint on our hands in order to make sure we can continue doing this thing we’re called to do,” Jeramy affirms.
It’s a mindset that’s woven into anchor track “My Country,” an original that readily lays out their mission. “We want to do what honors and glorifies the Lord,” Cody says. “We want our country music to absolutely speak Scripture and be biblically based, but it’s also about the country kind of lifestyle we lead.”
Jeramy adds, “It’s a song that lets people know who we are and what to expect from our music.”
Fans of both country and Christian music can expect a fusion of complimentary genres rooted in the brothers’ life on the farm and the faith that sustains them. Their handcrafted songs kick up some dust with plainspoken language that feels like a favorite pair of scuffed-up boots. A little bit Shane & Shane, a little bit Florida Georgia Line, Band Reeves is forging their own unique path on a patch of back 40 dirt where blue-collar living, big family dinners and bonfire worship all converge.
“We want to write songs about real, everyday life. We’re everyday kind of people, who are going through the same things in life everybody else is going through. So, I want our music to be relatable,” Jeramy says. “I want people to know that God wants to step into your everyday life, your everyday language; and when He does, it radically changes you in the best way possible.”
He’s radically changed these two brothers, and the evidence is hidden in plain sight in the songs they’re writing, the kids they’re raising and the lives they’re building. “God uses anybody and everybody. I mean, we’re nothing special,” Cody offers. “We’re just a couple of rednecks from a small town in East Texas, but God’s called us to do this, and He’s opened the doors. And for us, it’s all an opportunity to share Jesus.”
