Rootsscene review
CREECH HOLLER
With Signs Following
This is the music of funeral processions and dirge-filled bereavements. Of sin. Of salvation. Of old termite infested boards standing stoically side-by-side for impromptu juke houses in the way back of hazy mountain hills, brimming with fresh shine. But be weary of mistakes because while this music embraces you lovingly with a cupped drone it also hits with a barrage of reckless abandon and whup ass; Hill Country Stomping Hell Fire and Blues for those who like there heaven with a bit of hell.
Many of the songs here are of traditional origin and the fact that they are here at all illustrate that the boys from Creech Holler know their shit – but rather than bow silently to whatever expectations may creep, they punch and jab at the songs with an audacious fervor and wear them like well worn string ties.
This is good. Real good.
So. From here forth, let it be known, there's a trio of hell-raisers in Roots Music right now and they're taking up serpents, their name?
Creech Holler
.
Leicesterbangs review
Creech Holler -
With Signs Following
(Self Released)
If you were looking for the missing link between the hoedown and the black mass then look no further.
Electrification of old folk songs rarely comes off, and half of this album is from 'traditional' sources; but panic ye not because Creech Holler are more the inbred country cousins of The Immortal Lee County Killers than they are the grandsons of Fairport Convention. That said 'The Ballad of Mathie Groves' is a disinterment of the very same 'Matty Groves', only this time with webbed hands and six toes. What we have here is full-on fuzzed-up slide guitar, frenzied and insistent drumming (complete with footstomps), and an eerie rasping vocal sunk so low in the mix that it sounds like wind filtered through the branches of dying trees. Their characters, such as 'Lester Ballard' roam the hills by night, preach 'The Gospel of Judas' and are justly visited with a 'Plague of Frogs' in a drunken, dirty and dangerous world where this demented hillbilly blues is what they cut loose to on a typical East Tennessee Saturday night.
--Leicesterbangs
Purchase the record at CD BABY
CREECH HOLLER
WITH SIGNS FOLLOWING
- Label: 'Self-released '
- Genre: 'Alt/Country' - Release Date: '2007'
Our Rating: 8 out of 10
Listening to the debut album, "With Signs Following", from East
Tennessee-based CREECH HOLLER , is a bit like being trapped on a long-haul flight with severe turbulence. Theoretically, you know you're not going to die, but it's a pretty damn scary experience all the same.
Jeff Zentner (vocals, guitar), Christian Brooks (drums, footstomps), and Joey Campbell (bass, melodica, vocals) have produced a real contemporary take on the traditional style of their locality, that being the Southern Appalachian Mountains.
The album title, "With Signs Following", is a direct reference to The Church of Jesus Christ with Signs Following, or, Snake Handlers. These preachers took literal translation of various passages in the bible, in particular Mark 16: 17-18: "And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shalltake up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them." Unsurprisingly, quite a few preachers died from vicious snakebites sustained as they were waving the poor creatures around in their fervour, and the practise was made illegal in the 1940s. Point being, it was a dark and passionate practice, and so totally fitting with what Creech Holler are doing.
Fans of garage blues and hard country set-ups like the Archie Bronson Outfit, and (as always) Hank III , will lap up "With Signs Following". From the dramatic opening of "Pretty Polly", to their creepily disturbing take on "Little Matty Grove" [N.b. note for folksters - in many versions the young tyke is portrayed as a cheeky adulterer - in this version he endures a violent and bloody death, and we certainly know about it], their maniacal guitar, bass and drum bashing, more often than not coupled with eerie, hypnotic melodicas floating over the top, sends shivers down the spine.
If "With Signs Following" is enough to terrify the living daylights out of you, and it probably is, then just imagine what these guys would be like live. The London/UK circuit could surely do with more bands that run the risk of making your head explode, so this is a direct hint for Creech Holler to come pay us a visit.
Creech Holler have embraced Southern Gothic in all it's glory, so if you're a fan of Cormac McCarthy, Harper Lee, William Faulkner, death ballads, dark religion, Southern friend chicken, heavy rolling bass-lines, moonshine, cat fish, claw-hammer banging guitars, and unrelenting drums that will probably make your ears bleed, then this trio might be right up your street.
www.myspace.com/creechholler
WHISPERN and HOLLERN , Republic of Ireland
Creech Holler
CD BABY
Comments
this is a really great review! keep up the good work!