A Road of Rebellion

On July 10, 2026, Trever M. Keith is releasing “We Drank From a Poisoned Well.” Punk rock fans from around the globe may say something like, “Oh great, another punk rocker has gone country,” and that’s exactly what Keith, a founding member of the hugely influential Southern California punk band Face to Face, is afraid of, too.

“I didn’t want to just be the punk singer that straps on an acoustic guitar and bangs out bar chords on it and goes, ‘Hey, look at me. I can do folk and country now,’” Keith says.

Luckily, this foray into American and country music is anything but that. “We Drank From a Poisoned Well” is a deep, deliberate dive into both storytelling and the classic sounds Keith grew up hearing in the greater Los Angeles area.

“My whole goal was to make a record that was true to form,” says Keith, who counts 1960s-era country among his favorites. “Growing up in California and being a punk rock fan, of course you’ve heard of Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Merle Haggard. The outlaw country stuff is almost hand in hand with early punk rock. If you ever liked Social Distortion, you know some of those influences that have come through in how Mike Ness incorporated country leanings into rock and roll and punk rock.”

Where the Roads Converge

For the last 16 years, Keith has made Tennessee his home. While living outside Nashville helped shape the path to this album, it didn’t come from a love of modern country radio. “I’m still not a big fan of contemporary country music that comes out of the big music industry here in town,” Keith says. “As a general rule, I’m more a fan of a very specific era of country.”

Instead, the local advantage meant recording with independent session players who helped the record come to life, allowing traditional instrumentation like fiddle and acoustic guitars to shine on tracks like “Only Time” and the title track. Another standout track is a gunfighter ballad called “Brackish Waters.”

“‘Brackish Waters’ is one of those I started with a title. It didn’t really have a theme or a story. But I knew, I thought, well, a gunfighter ballad would be kind of cool. If maybe the imagery of it was where freshwater meets the saltwater somewhere, and something happening in the brackish waters,” Keith says.

The record allowed Keith to significantly expand his lyric writing style. While Face to Face songs are often more like emotional snapshots than fully formed narratives, several tracks here allowed him to share a fully realized story.

“‘Brackish Waters’ in particular is the song that maybe I applied the most to because it does tell a story from beginning to end,” he says.

Keith’s artistic history fits that same restless, self-made arc. While it has been about a dozen years since he got his last tattoo — a small piece at Elm Street Tattoo in Dallas — he looks back fondly on the good and bad decisions he made while collecting ink. His first, a Punisher logo on his bicep at age 21, is now surrounded by full sleeves. He vividly shares a humorous, brutal tale of getting his ribs and stomach done while on tour with Face to Face in the late ’90s.

“I got this huge rib piece on one day and then the other huge rib piece the following day. That was pretty stupid,” Keith says, laughing. “By the time we made it down to Texas, I had an appointment with Oliver (Peck), so I had these two rib tattoos that weren’t fully healed — they’re all scabby — and then I sat down and (Oliver) did a tattoo that would have taken most people probably six or eight hours in about four. Scott (Shiflett), our bass player in Face to Face, grabbed some photos of me, and I look like a corpse laying on a table. Then we did a show that night. So, I have a guitar on me up against this gigantic tattoo that Oliver Peck just did, sticking to my skin because I’m all sweaty. That was a little bit more than I bargained for.”

Following the record’s release, Keith hopes to tour these songs later in 2026, alongside performing five select North American shows with Face to Face. But his creative output isn’t slowing down or staying confined to music. He is actively working on paintings this year and is in the early stages of writing his first novel alongside author Rob Rufus.

Keith clearly thrives at the intersection of these mediums. He says, “I’m trying to do the full creative roundhouse here with writing and painting and music.”