The Road Hammers are an unstoppable musical force, bound and determined to deliver a trailer load of the toughest, coolest, real-est country music to come down that southbound pike in a long, long time. Conceived as a side project by Canadian country star Jason McCoy and forged under the unforgiving reality-TV lights of CMT Canada’s “Making the Band,” The Road Hammers took on a life of its own from the very beginning.

Needless to say, The Road Hammers flew, a lot higher than anyone, even the band members themselves, ever expected. Those band members guitarist/vocalist Clayton Bellamy and the world class, kickass rhythm section of bassist/vocalist Chris Byrne and drummer Corbett Frasz may have come together on camera, but onstage and in the studio the Road Hammers quickly formed the kind of greater-than-the-sum-of-its-parts bond that every musican dreams of.

With the exhilarating musical and vocal tension between Bellamy’s go-for-broke, rock ‘n’ roll heart and McCoy’s deep-fried country soul providing the creative fuel, and the Bryne/Frasz rhythm section hammering it all home, the band’s self-titled debut album quickly ascended to the upper reaches of the Canadian country charts, with four songs “East Bound and Down,” “Nashville Bound,” “Girl On the Billboard” and “I’m a Road Hammer” hitting the Top 10.