Legendary Shack Shakers – The Southern Surreal
- Written by Jono Coote
A book I have found myself returning to again and again in recent years is Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy’s epic cowboy saga. It captures the stark brutality of the Old West and how easily civilisation can descend into madness and mass murder, using sparse prose and a flair for painting a picture which builds the hellish situations being described into something almost beguiling. The music of the Legendary Shack Shakers also takes, as its muse, the dark underbelly of Americana. In comparison to McCarthy’s terse yet evocative descriptions they paint a lush soundscape, a nightmare carnival where specific styles and genres whirl in and out of your consciousness in milliseconds.
Their newest album The Southern Surreal is a natural progression, shining a light on their Southern Gothic roots through a heady mixture of rockabilly, swing and country. The brief opening chords of ‘Cow Tools’ become the rollicking, high energy ‘Mud’, one of the albums undoubted high points. It is a slice of Spaghetti Western-tinted psychobilly, with the guitar riff acting as a centrepiece while singer J.D. Wilkes' voice veers between the sound of a Southern preacher and Demented Are Go vocalist Sparky. The following track, 'Misamerica', takes a sleazy blues riff to create a vibe which wouldn't sound out of place in the Titty Twister bar in From Dusk ‘til Dawn. ‘Cold’ has a similarly 3am neon barroom feel. The sampled audio of ‘The Grinning Man’ (which links the two) adds a strangely disturbing edge.
‘Dead Bury The Dead’ adds a '60s surf-influenced garage edge to proceedings, a depraved and menacing stomp. The album’s atmosphere until this point should ensure that the upbeat alt-country of ‘The One That Got Away’ would sound ridiculously out of place, but somehow it doesn't. This is perhaps something to do with the occasional distorted guitar lick rising out of the depths and giving the song a grittier edge than it would perhaps have gained in other hands.
‘Young Heart, Old Soul’ is the one song that entirely throws me; perhaps it translates better to a raucous live set, but put to record it stands out as a strange nod to the evolutionary musical dead end of third wave ska. Luckily the album is bought back on track by the raucous blues instrumental ‘Fool’s Tooth’ and the eerie poem ‘The Dog Was Dead’, narrated by fan of the band Billy Bob Thornton.
‘Down To The Bone’, a solid, whiskey soaked groove, gives way to the full throttle blues rock of ‘Christ Alrighty’ which turns into the barroom piano of ‘Demon Rum’. The Eastern influence which swirls through ‘The Buzzard And The Bell’ offers a glimpse of yet another layer to the band’s rich musical tapestry and would be a perfectly solid album closer, but the band have one more left for the road; a cover of ‘Born Under A Bad Sign’ which would do Tom Waits proud, with bursts of distortion, dissonant sounds rising out of the mix and a rasping, echoing vocal.
As you might glean from the above text, the Shack Shakers’ new record covers a wide swathe of musical ground. Despite this, the record never sounds cobbled together – the sign of a band who have been around for long enough to grow comfortable within their own sound but are still constantly experimenting and evolving. Probably one of the most interesting albums you will hear this year, especially if you don’t know the band; but even for fans there will be unexpected highlights and innovations, so don’t hesitate to check this one out.