TOR070. Released December 2019.
01 Country Hoodoo
02 TB Blues
Hey folks, this is my new single – and only 7 years after the last one! Although I’ve been playing it live for the past year or so (maybe even longer), Country Hoodoo has taken quite a time to find its way onto a record. The original version was done three years ago and sat around waiting for a home, on a proposed (and forever mutating) EP that never materialised. Then, after playing it live, the song continued to evolve. The lyrics changed for a start and I became more comfortable singing it, so I felt that a new vocal was required to reflect what the song was now. That ended up being a lot less straightforward than you would think, with various attempts to capture said vocal being thwarted to the point where we began to believe that the song itself was hexed, sabotaged by Hoodoo spirits who disapproved of such levity and cultural appropriation. Anyway, it was finally completed and here it is now, though only if you have actually been able to download and/or listen to it can the hex truly be said to have been broken.
As for the song itself, the phrase “Country Hoodoo” popped into my head and I knew that there was a song there. I read up a little on Hoodoo and learned that it was not the same as Voodoo, but a type of folk magic brought over to the Southern states of America by enslaved Africans. I guess that it’s a basically a love song, but one that incorporates terms and imagery from various spiritual practices. It also refers to the belief that the crossroads, so common in blues lore and specifically in the legend of Robert Johnson, is a magical place which is "between two worlds" - "neither here nor there" & "betwixt and between" – and a site where spirits can be contacted and paranormal events can occur.
The second song on offer here has taken even longer to find its way out into the world, having been originally recorded by me for possible inclusion on the first Dead West album back in 2010. Thougheverybody liked it at the time, it was very close in feel to another track which we liked a little bit and included instead, so it didn’t make the cut. Over the years, Ste Benson has been this song’s most fervent champion and it was largely at his urging that it appears here, though it certainly makes sense when paired with another slice of weird Americana.
TB Blues was first recorded by the great Jimmie Rodgers in 1931, though I believe that it was derived from a traditional song and is one of many songs about TB and indeed other diseases that were prevalent in America at the time. In the spirit of folk music and its evolution, I’ve changed some of the lyrics and added a refrain to the last part of the song which was not in the Rodgers’ version.
Many thanks to Bob Cuthbertson for allowing me to use his splendid artwork for the cover which brings to mind John Fahey albums such as “Blind Joe Death” and “Death Chants, Breakdowns & Military Waltzes” - thus providing another link to American roots music and folklore.
And so, in the manner of a folk tale, these two orphans, after a long and difficult journey, have now found a home. Please make them welcome.
