"I figure if you press ground with salvation, damnation, violence, and depravity, you ought to be able to write a song about it. Maybe even an album's worth."
"I figure if you press ground with salvation, damnation, violence, and depravity, you ought to be able to write a song about it. Maybe even an album's worth."
If you have walked on Alabama red clay you know it has permanence. Some of us have been buried up to our neck in it. I grew up staring into burn barrels with people who I admired, feared, and felt sorry for at the same time. I fought game roosters in a pit with my dad who worked at the cotton mill. Unless it was Sunday. Then there's a chance I'd be at the pleasant church with my mom. The kind of church where the preacher scales the back of the pews. He might even lift you up out of your seat as his shouts make the lights flicker.
I'm the oldest of three boys. My mom was 16 when I was born. She has played and sang Southern Gospel music all her life. If you feel the Spirit in my songs, that is where it came from. I don't know if the darkness in my stories showed up after my parents split. It is difficult to remember before then. I do remember scratching the dirt looking for something to hold onto. These songs are my attempt to share what I found. Maybe we were digging together the whole time. You be the judge of that.
The songs on Dark and Bold are older than me. Some may be older than Man. They are cured in Southern Gothic salt and washed in the Blood of the Lamb. I appreciate any interest you have in this pilgrimage. I hope you'll share it with me. The lyrics to these songs are posted on this site. Many of them can stand alone as poetry. Hopefully all of them can. We'll be releasing Dark and Bold in physical form only. Vinyl and CD. I might even send you some honest-to-God Alabama red clay in the mail.
Take care, friends,
RLB