American Jackals

American Jackals was born in the river bottom lands of Missouri and Illinois, where country and rock & roll have always belonged together. The band is the songwriting partnership of Taran Smith and Nick DeWitt Bifano. Taran brings the perspective of rural Missouri and a deep appreciation for traditional country music. Nick comes from a rock & roll background shaped by years of playing live, recording, and producing. They come from different places musically, but they meet in the middle. Their sound lives somewhere between outlaw country, classic rock, and soul. It's music made for long drives, dive bars, back roads, and anyone who's ever felt caught between staying put and chasing something bigger. The songs don't try to reinvent the wheel—they're just honest stories about love, mistakes, redemption, family, freedom, and the lives people actually live. American Jackals released their debut single, Still Runnin' Wild, in 2025 and have continued building their catalog one song at a time with releases like Steady Shakin', Love On The Rocks, Hymn of the Holler, and Lost Child. Every song is another chapter, written without chasing trends or worrying about where it fits. At its core, American Jackals is two songwriters making the kind of records they grew up wanting to hear—country with some grit, rock & roll with some soul, and songs that mean something when the volume comes down as much as when it's turned all the way up.