Three and a half years ago Slackeye Slim released his latest and criticallly acclaimed album ”El Santo Grial: La Pistola Piadosa”. Now he is back with a new album ”Giving My Bones to the Western Lands”. The expectations are high and the crucial issues are if it was worth the wait and if it stand the test of comparison. Let me start with a brief executive summary before I walk you through the whole album. Start of the executive summary: This is a gothic western album with eleven songs spanning over 48 minutes. Despite a considerable proportion of darkness on the album it's bursting of light, energy and lust for life. The performance is impeccable. The vocals are more direct and ingenuous compared to previous albums. ”Giving My Bones to the Western Lands” is a natural progression and maturation from "El Santo Grial: La Pistola Piadosa” and at the same time a marker of where Slackeye Slim is today (the word where have multiple meanings here). This development has also affected the lyrics which deals with romantic idealization of nature and poetic reflections within social realism. The supplied lyrics are more personal and sincere than on previous albums. At the moment the album is only available digitally, but hopefully it will be released on vinyl in a near future (you can forget about any cd). You can buy the album digitally in the format of your choice at Bandcamp, just click on the icon (bottom left). The price is set according to the "name your price"-principle. End of the executive summary.

The ”walking through” part of the review will slavishly follow the songs in the order they are positioned on the album. After all, it's exactly what the artist intended when making the album. Maybe this old-fashioned way to listen to music belongs to a bygone era, but this is the way it ought to be. Positioning of songs on an album is a difficult art to master and often a neglected area. I find it very disappointing when too little effort and careful thought have been put in this process. Sometimes, I feel an urge to intervene and brutally rearrange the order. But, in this case I have no objection at all. The album starts bombastic with ”Don’t You Bury Me”. The song has all the typical trademarks of Slackeye Slim. The song starts quite tentative and slightly unfocused with some initial stray guitar playing before the song changes mode and gets your full attention with guitar chords, basslines, drums and vocals. On top of that, a guitar loop with cerebral-cortex-sticking qualities follow the harmony closely. ”It makes no difference now just where it started out/I went off on my own one day and I never turned around”. The vocals and the accompaniment are perfectly calibrated. The songs ends with the refrain (only sung once) ”Don’t you bury me/ Don’t you bury me/Leave me in the sunshine/For the birds to pick me clean”. The mood for the album is hereby set. After this high intensity beginning the tempo slows down a few notches. The second song ”Don Houston” tells the story of a cowboy (Don Houston) in a palpable narrative way with dogs barking in the background. However, the song is the weakest on the album. It’s not a bad song, it just don't stand out like the other songs on the album. The third song ”Oh Montana” starts with simple guitar chords, lap steel and deep baritone vocals. The guitar and lap steel gradually increases in strength towards the end of the song. The song is a good example of the fact that a song can be simple and epic at the same time. You don’t need a string quartet or symphony orchestra to accomplish an epic sound. The fourth song ”I’m Going Home” pays homage to traditional country with just banjo and harmonica. The song manages to tell a whole life story in just four and a half minute. ”They handed me a hammer/And sent me off alone/With a name out of the Bible/To remind me where I’m from”. The best song on the album is without any doubt ”Where the Wind Will Let Me Go”. The song grabs you firmly and sweeps you away. The song starts with guitar chords then a saw is introduced. Saw is sometimes used in the country genre, but I have never heard a saw sounding like this before. It’s whining and, in lack of better words, almost singing in hollow way. Anyway, it’s the strangest and most beautiful saw I ever heard. The song is built up with thick bass lines, heavy drums and scattered guitar loops. In my opinion, the voice of Slackeye Slim have never sounded better. ”Like a bird in the wind will go the only way he can/I’m going where the wind will let me go”. But it doesn’t stop there. After circa 1 minute and 15 seconds in the song a banjo starts to pick. The banjo doesn't go away or fade out as expected but instead it starts to attack real hard, but never takes over. The banjo picking is exquisite. The tempo in the song increases even further at the end of the song with thundering and distorted guitars before it abrubtly ends with a ”zaaapp”. ”Where the Wind Will Let Me Go” leaves me flabbergasted. The next song ”San Juan Song” gives you an opportunity to calm down, arrange your facial expressions and recover. It’s a slow, dark and grandiose song including the aforementioned whining and singing saw. ”No one’s gonna find us here/Or come to claim our bones/We’re gonna live forever/Where the lonely San Juan flows”. It’s also one of the best songs on the album, but the track position means that it becomes a bit overshadowed. But on the other hand, there's no better position on the album for the song.   

If this album would have been released on vinyl this is probably where you would have to flip over to the B-side to continue listening. The seventh song ”It Wasn’t You” starts up in a captivating rumba style, but soon a spanish-influenced-machine-gun-sounding guitar come into play, which fits the dark lyrics. ”And no one’s gonna come looking for me/By the river in the cottonwood trees/While I’m burying your bones/The last time I saw you/There was someone in your shoes/But it wasn’t you”. The eight song is called ”The Cowboy Song”. The upbeat tempo is counterbalanced by the equally depressing lyrics. ”The birds all die of broken hearts/When he goes passing by/But he’ll hold them in his arms tonight/And bring them back to life/As long as he’s singing his cowboy song. The title song ”The Western Lands” is a true highlight on the album. In another context Slackeye Slim explained the background of the title: ”Mainly because I love the American West. It's sort of a nod to William S Burroughs too.” The seven minute song is almost hymnal in its structure with guitar, lap steel, and the aforementioned whining and singing saw and vocals. Slackeye Slim sings with a greater sensitivity, conviction, emphasis and emotional phrasing on this song. Maybe this particular topic lies close to his heart. “Leaving it all far behind I saddled my pony and went toward the western sky/I don’t mind if I don’t come back alive/And no one’s got to understand the reason why”. The songs ends with the refrain: ”And I gave my bones to the western lands/I don’t need ‘em no more”. Only a heart of stone is untouched by this epic song. You’re also excused if you lack a standard emotional setup, but not otherwise. You may now think that Slackeye Slim have burned everything he has to offer and there are no quality songs left. Statistically, this would be a reasonable assumption. But this is not statistics, it's gothic western music. The tenth song on the album is ”As Long as the Grass Shall Grow”. The song starts with guitar chords, then extreme dark vocals: ”As long as the grass shall grow/As long as the river runs cold/My heart will have no room for mercy for you/It’s blood I want/Nothing else will do”. A lonesome banjo starts picking and after a while a harmonica is introduced. The song gradually cranks up with bass lines and pounding drums. The singing becomes more and more dramatic and the songs ends in a crescendo. ”As Long as the Grass Shall Grow” is perhaps the next best song on the album. The last song on an album is both difficult and important. It concludes what the artist wants to say with the album. The song ”Juniper Tree” is as close to a love song you will get from Slackeye Slim. On his Facebook page in December 2014 he wrote ”Maybe it's the Christmas liquor talking, but if this was the last thing I ever wrote, that'd be all right with me I reckon.” The song ends ”Sit down for a while/In the shade of this juniper tree/No one’s wondering where you are/I’m alone, I’m alone but I am free/In the shade of this juniper tree”. Somehow these lines sums it up. A man in peace with himself, living his dream in Colorado and making headstrong quality music in his spare time. The ”walking through” part is hereby completed, but what about the overall assessment? This is a very solid album with well-crafted songs and no fillers of any kind. The arrangements and performance are exquisite (especially in the use of guitars). The album is fully coherent from a thematic point of view, which is quite of an achivement in our time with its lack of ideas, ability to focus and absence of stamina. And finally, the question that can’t be avoided: is the new album better than the masterpiece ”El Santo Grial: La Pistola Piadosa”? I'm almost inclined to say yes.

If you click on the icons below they will open in a new window, from left to right: Slackeye Slim's Bandcamp page, complete lyrics for "Giving My Bones to the Western Lands", Slackeye Slim's homepage and press kit for "Giving My Bones to the Western Lands".

There was a time when I thought that visiting "the South" could be lethal. The reason for this was the movie "Deliverance" in which an unnamed mountain man without any hesitation states “This river don't go to Aintry. You done taken a wrong turn. See uh, this here river don't go nowhere near Aintry”. It clearly defined the meaning of not having control over the situation. Movies can thus be a strong influence, but I like to believe that I have developed a less prejudiced view over time. However, you have to tread lightly when approaching the subject "the South" since it's overwhelmed by myths, history and interpretation. Not only what is interpreted, but also who is the interpreter (southener or non-southener) are important. In fact, I have come across an academic thesis with the formal title "Capturing Southern Identities: Auto-Ethnographic Documentaries of the Southern United States" which among other issues dissects the movie "Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus", pp 40-49, which you can find here. There's a putrid odor of "authenticity fetishism" in the text that can not be attributed to purpose, scope or problem statement. Jim White (an ”imitation Southener”) challenged strong conventions when he went looking for the “gold tooth in God’s crooked smile” in "Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus", a BBC award-winning road-movie by director Andrew Douglas exploring Southern culture through its music and stories. Jim White's role was as a narrator and guide. In the movie he drove around in a 1970 Chevrolet Impala with a sculpture of Jesus sticking out of the trunk. In the movie he passes juke joints, junkyards, mysticism, Christianity, trailer parks and prisons. Of course, the film really pissed off some purists. In an interview for Paste Magazine in 2008 Jim White calmly said: “My role in the movie has certainly provoked some interesting responses among Southophiles,” White says. “I cherish my role as lightning rod! Hopefully I'll get assassinated and my album sales will skyrocket into the tens of thousands and my family will finally be able to afford soap and toothpaste.” You can watch the trailer for the movie here.

One who got at least a little pissed off was Colonel JD Wilkes (frontman of Th' Legendary Shack Shakers). In an interview for Staythirstymedia in 2006 he said: ”I'd seen the movie Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus, and felt that it kind of left me a little wanting and I thought it was kind of half the story, or half the picture and the other half was somewhat damaging to people's concept of the South. So I thought I would do a little damage control and make my own movie, even if it meant I would do it black and white with a shaky camcorder, I was just gonna try to set the record straight. To explain the South, to the BBC - what (Jesus) was. In LA, New York, and Chicago singer-songwriters were trying to explain the South to the BBC, rather than southerners explaining the South to the world. I thought that the important thing to clarify was that it's not this ignorant cesspool of filth and it's actually a haven for art and creativity and there's actually a lot of intelligence there. The South does not corner the market on ignorance. And as our scientologist friends on the West Coast prove, it's kind of one of those things that needed to be said and needed to be said by a southerner.” In the movie Wilkes nails up seven signs, each of them representing an apocalyptic theme (plague, famine, earthquake, the sky will turn dark and oceans will turn to blood. Antichrist will emerge followed by final battle between good and evil). A (deliberately?) misspelled church sign “There's no LIE in what we BELEIVE” becomes a recurring theme throughout the movie (and on the movie poster, see right). By its very nature, "Seven Signs" received none of the criticism that hit "Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus". Instead the movie was described as "profund, emphatetic statement", "an admirable work of portraiture, capturing the humanity, complexity and wisdom of figures who land along a continuum of piety, mysticism and iconoclasm" and "dignified and disarming" among other poetic adjectives.

I don't understand the indignation and the "country beef" counterpart. "Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus" and "Seven Signs" premiered in 2005 and 2008 respectively. Both movies deal with "old weird America", but approach the subject in slightly different ways. Despite the controversies around "Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus" (which is by no means a freak show) there's more that unites the two movies than divides them. For instance, the format and narrative techniques are similar. There are colorful people and great dark country music in both movies. However, in "Seven Signs" there's a stronger focus on stories told by the people that are interviewed. On the other hand, the music in "Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus" is far better. "Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus" is 82 minutes long and reaches 7,7 points in the IMDB-rating, while "Seven Signs" is only 53 minutes long and reaches 7,9 points in the IMDB-rating. In my opinion, there's plenty of room of different interpretations of "the South". There is no such thing as "one and once and for all pure and true interpretation". It's more complicated and that's also what makes "the South" so intriguing.

What can we expect from 2015? In my opinion, there's very interesting albums coming up. Sons of Perdition and Jaran Hereid from Yuma Sun will be releasing an EP with the title "Fossils". You won't be disappointed if you like Sons of Perditions epic sound. Slackeye Slim has finished his mixing and will be - if everything goes according to plan - releasing his third full-length album with the tentative title "Giving My Bones to the Western Lands". I've spent a lot of time lately listening to his new songs on Soundcloud (seek after the name Joe Franklandstein). It sounds very promising! Uncle Sinner will be releasing his long-awaited second album "Let the Devil In" (not counting the album "A Pocketful of Glass Eyes" which was released as a fundraiser in 2014 with outtakes and rarities). If think we can expect a both raw and well-produced album. Moreover Palodine has announced the release of their fourth album in 2015. Furthermore, I don't know if it's going to happen, but I hope The Victor Mourning will release a second full-length album this year. The put out an EP "Kill a Spider/The Ballad of Frankie Silver" over a year ago, which you can listen to and buy here. What more can you expect from the new year? It would be nice if some of my personal wishes came true in 2015. For instance, that I could lay my hands on at least one of the hard-to-find four missing albums, read more here. Unfortunately, things haven't going my way lately and soon I will be forced to update the blog entry to "The eight missing albums" or something like that. I also wish that my website will continue to grow organically. In late November 2014 the visitor counter on the site passed 10000 (far more and a lot sooner than I could ever hope for). I'm obviously not the only one obsessed with this kind of music. Furthermore, I wish that more people would recognize and appreciate the artists and bands in the "gothic country" genre. High obscurity level can't be exchanged for food, read more here. I also hope to see some of the artists and bands in my hometown Stockholm, Sweden. It's remotely located (58º 35′ N 16º 11′ E), but it happens now and then. For instance, when Jayke Orvis & the Broken Band played one of their last gigs, read more here. Finally, I speculated about a supergroup in the gothic country genre recently, read more here. None of the involved musicians have unambiguously ruled out the idea in theory, however unlikely it may seem in practice. But, who knows what will happen tomorrow?      

On July 31 2007 Antic Clay released his first and only album (a double album!) “Hilarious Death Blues” (HDB), which was hailed as a masterpiece by no less than a medium-sized army of music critics but nevertheless was no commercial success. Antic Clay went on an indefinite hiatus in early 2009 and faded into obscurity. All that remains is the hard-to-find double album. No more, no less. At least I thought so, until Michael Bradley (Antic Clay) recently put out an unreleased outtake from the album on Youtube called “Mechanically Separated Blues”, which you can listen to here. Not counting the album title, there are four songs with "blues" in the song title on HDB. In an interview for the readable website Swamplandzine (whose motto is "A creative sanctuary for those who refuse to give in to the devils of convention") Antic Clay explained: "I like to add blues to song titles as a non-sequitur.” The song “Mechanically Separated Blues” is a strong reminder of what great songwriter Michael Bradley (Antic Clay) is. It's "dark americana" of the most exclusive brand. “Hilarious Death Blues” was recorded in a friend's studio in the mountains near Asheville, North Carolina. Antic Clay wrote and played almost everything on the album. The HDB album contains 21 songs and it's feels strange when you realize there's also a 22th song. It definitely says something about the quality of the album if you can afford not to include a song like “Mechanically Separated Blues”. Maybe there are more songs that were destined for the album, but for some reason never were included. And then, maybe overoptimistic people like myself can hope for an second release "The Alternative Hilarious Death Blues - outtakes and rarities". A more far-fetched speculation is that Michael Bradley (Antic Clay) would return to the mountains near Asheville, North Carolina and start recording a new album. But, a hiatus almost never turns into activity again, especially not after five years of intermission. But stranger things have happened. Until it happens, we will have to seek solace in the existing songs of Antic Clay. 

Here are the lyrics of “Mechanically Separated Blues” in its entirety: "Lord, send me a message in a bottle! Lord, send me amber waves of grain! Send me proof she didn't send me down the river! Send her back, or send me his name! / My corpse is in the kitchen, sipping Beam Black bourbon. And listening to the slow hum of the clock. My soporific mission: Arrive at some decision, and evince the truth within our little talk. / There's an old cross on the wall and a creaking in the hall! A pistol in the closet and there's nothing good at all! / Lord, send me a message in a bottle! Lord, send me amber waves of grain! Send me proof she didn't send me down the river! Send her back, or send me his name! / Artifacts and remnants, ruins and remains, strewn across the locus of our stage! Like bones of lesser tenants torn apart in penance! Mechanically separated and tossed away! / That uncompleted overpass over highway 95, if a body were to take it, it'd be like driving to the sky! / Lord, send me a message in a bottle! Lord, send me amber waves of grain! Send me proof she didn't send me down the river! Send her back, or send me his name! / Divorce is an admission of the essential flaws within us. And everything I dread is coming true. You can't force a change or alter that fissure in your nature, when what is wrong is wrong all the way through. / My rusted Olds is in the drive, I grab the bottle and I hop in, the brakes are all but gone man, but I don't plan on stopping! / Send me his name. / Haha, who? Everything I dread is coming true. (etc.)"

The term "supergroup" has a certain committal ring to it. Usually used in the context of rock or pop music. The Highwaymen (see picture right) was a supergroup in the outlaw country subgenre between 1985-1995. Outlaw country or not, there are worse country genres and my interest lies within the broad "gothic country" genre. Is a supergroup within the "gothic country" genre inconceivable? In this blog entry I will investigate the prerequisites and the difficulties. Let's start with a definition. A supergroup usually refers to a music group whose members are already successful as solo artists or as part of other groups. The prefix "super" indicates that the members should be the cream of the genre. Supergroups are sometimes formed as a side projects and not intended to be permanent, while in other cases it will become the primary project of the members. The durability of a supergroup is rather short. I would also like to add another important aspect: if the decision to join the group is based on musical considerations or as part of a retirement plan. The term "supergroup" is widely misused and it takes very little, if nothing, for a group to be denoted "supergroup". Of course, in this blog entry I apply an orthodox interpretation of the term which means SUPERgroups like Cream, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and Traveling Wilburys. So far, the closest to them in country music is the aforementioned The Highwaymen (Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings). I must admit it's hard not to like them when they play "The Highwayman" by Jimmy Webb: "I was a highwayman, Along the coach roads I did ride, With the sword and pistol by my side, And many a young maid lost her baubles to my trade, And many a soldier shed his life blood on my blade, They fin'lly hung me in the spring of '25, But I am still alive." You almost forgive them for being backed by no less than a smaller army of talented musicians standing in the unlit background at their live gigs. So many musicians on the payroll is really an overkill. The four of them would be quite sufficient. It's in its nature that a supergroup tends to become rather pretentious and pompous. The dynamics of a supergroup follow the rules of a zero-sum game within game theory. For every winner there is a loser and for every gain there is a loss. There are seldom any synergy effects like 1+1+1+1=5. Some supergroup members capitalize on the star quality of other members, while star quality members don't get much in return. I don't think Johnny Cash primarly will be remembered for his part in The Highwaymen. Personally, I will remember him for the six American Recordings albums and the 5 cd box "Unearthed".    

Enough said, who are The Highwaymen of the "gothic country" genre? Let's ignore the obvious contradiction in terms. There's never any "super" and quite seldom a "group" in the genre. However, many are called but few are chosen. The obvious choice would be Zebulon Whatley from Sons of Perdition, Lonesome Wyatt from Those Poor Bastards (and solo in Lonesome Wyatt & the Holy Spooks), Dad Horse (from The Dad Horse Experience) and Slackeye Slim (see picture left). This four-piece constellation is not entirely unrealistic. In fact, Zebulon Whatley and Lonesome Wyatt have collaborated in the song "Blood in the Valley" from Sons of Perditions album "The Kingdom is on Fire" and in the song "Born to Preach" on Those Poor Bastards latest album "Vicious Losers". Zebulon Whatley, Lonesome Wyatt and Dad Horse have also collaborated in the song “Psalm of Nod” from Sons of Perditions album “Psalms for the Spiritually Dead”. In theory and empirically, we already have a strong foundation in this trio. I would also like to add Slackeye Slim as a fourth member to this already renowned lineup. Lonesome Wyatt did the backing vocals in the ultra-catchy song "I Wanna Be Yer Zombie!” from the album "Texas Whore Pleaser", another example of earlier collaboration. That's it, no more and no less. A "supergroup" within the "gothic country" genre is hereby assembled by yours truly. However, there are of course some minor obstacles that must be overcome like the geographical distance (Texas, Wisconsin, Bremen Germany and Colorado respectively). This should not be an insurmountable problem for a "supergroup" worthy of its name. We also need a name of the group, perhaps "Whatley, Wyatt, Ottn & Slim" or something more gothic and spectacular. A second potential obstacle would the differences in their style: doom country, apocalyptic country, keller gospel and gothic western. My assessment is that the differences could be housed within the wide border posts of a "gothic country" supergroup. It's far more that unites them than divides them. A third potential obstacle is that they at the moment are in different phases, paths and lineage. Zebulon Whatley has recently moved forward and expanded Sons of Perdition into a full band in a new and unknown direction, Lonesome Wyatt is untiringly making music with Those Poor Bastards and in his solo-project. Dad Horse is steady rooted in his Keller Gospel genre and tour relentlessly. Slackeye Slim is currently working on his third full-length album with the tentative title "Giving My Bones to the Western Lands". Very likely, Slackeye Slim is moving in a new musical direction. They may be in different phases, paths and lineage, but I like to see this as four biorhytm lines. Sooner or later the lines will coincide. Maybe not as a permanent supergroup, but at least in a one-time-only collaboration on an album or a concert. I'm pretty confident that the law of nature of supergroups will be violated since the nature of law doesn't apply within the "gothic country" genre. In old age (or at least in older age) they would tour and play songs like "The Trickster", "I Wonder", "Kingdom it will Come" and "Vengeance Gonna Be My Name" among other songs. I also like to believe that the would pay homage and play cover songs like "Wayfaring Stranger", "Ramblin' Man" and maybe even "The Highwayman".