The Devil Makes Three Trivia Quiz

Answer: Pete Bernhard

Peter Bernhard is the main singer and songwriter in the group. He also plays guitar. Cooper McBean mostly plays the banjo. He also sometimes plays the guitar, and he sings a few songs. He doesn't sing lead on most songs, but one of the songs he does sing lead on was my personal favorite song: "Car Wreck." Lucia Turino plays the bass and does backing vocals.

She rarely does lead vocals, but she does sing one verse in the original song "Working Man's Blues," and has sung cover songs live in concert, such as Doc Watson's "Walk on Boy" and Peggy Lee's "I Am Woman."

Answer: Graveyard

"Graveyard" is a song on the Devil Makes Three's self-titled debut album and is an audience favorite at concerts. The narrator in this song has failed at everything he has tried, and how he feels utterly hopeless about life, and his only plan is to drink until the day he dies. Several songs on The Devil Makes Three's first album have this sentiment. This is likely one of the songs that Bernhard wrote in his friend Paul's attic that he now gets played to play (mentioned in a later song called "For Good Again," which Bernhard has said is a true story).

Things have changed for The Devil Makes Three since this song was written. They had never been a household name at the time this quiz was made (I hope that has changed by the time you play it), but they have had albums that have been in the U.S. Billboard top 200 chart and they had enough fans to play concerts all around the United States. Most musicians would happily take the success that the Devil Makes Three have experienced.

Answer: My Gal

The name of the group that originally did the song was Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band. The Devil Makes Three often do cover songs during their concerts that don't appear on any of their studio albums.

Answer: Nobody's Dirty Business

The original writer of this song was Mississippi John Hurt. The narrator in the song wants to shoot his wife and he wants people to leave him alone when he does.

Answer: Never Learn

This song is on the second album, "Long Johns, Boots, and a Belt." As you can probably tell even from just the few words I wrote in the question, the "Hallelujah" is sarcastic. The song is about how poor people do all the hard labor, but rich people end up getting all the money for it. "Sweeping" is about the same idea.

Answer: Poison Trees

"Statesboro Blues" was written by Blind Willie McTell, although his version had a lot of lyrics that the Devil Makes Three didn't use. "Cheap Reward" was written by Elvis Costello.

Probably the most surprising thing of all for most Devil Makes Three fans is that the title song on the band's third album and the band's most popular song at the time this quiz was made (based on audience reactions at the shows I've attended) was actually written by Sean Jones. The Devil Makes Three's version of this song is the most popular version though.

The other nine songs on "Do Wrong Right" are original Devil Makes Three songs. The message of "Poison Trees" is that rich powerful people are doing awful things, and the few heroic people who know and have tried to fight back ended up dead. We can all fight back and hopefully they can't kill all of us, or we can just ignore it to save our own skin.

Answer: Hand Back Down

This song is on The Devil Makes Three's fourth album, "I'm a Stranger Here." They rarely played this song on the "I'm a Stranger Here" tour, but upon fan requests, they played this song more often at more recent shows.

Answer: Redemption and Ruin

"Redemption and Ruin" came out in 2016. It has songs by Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Willie Nelson, Townes Van Zandt, Tom Waits, and Hank Williams Sr.

Answer: I'm a Stranger Here

The Devil Makes Three's fourth album, "I'm a Stranger Here," peaked at number 124 on this chart. Their fifth "Redemption and Ruin" peaked at number 144 on this chart.

Answer: Do Wrong Right

Cooper McBean sings "Gracefully Facedown" and "Car Wreck." Lucia Turino sings the last new verse in "Working Man's Blues" (it's the 2nd to last verse in the song, but the last verse is just a repetition of the first verse). Pete Bernhard sings the rest.

"Long Johns, Boots, and, a Belt" has lead vocals from Bernhard and McBean, but none from Turino. "I'm a Stranger Here" only has lead vocals from Bernhard. "Love and Loathing" isn't even a Devil Makes Three album.