This Friday, The Legendary Shack Shakers, the band Stephen King described as dynamite and guitar legend Jeff Beck called "a cross between the Yard Birds and the Sex Pistols," release their new album, After You've Gone, on Last Chance Records.
AllMusic premieres the exclusive stream of After You've Gone here.
With After You've Gone, the band delivers their swampy, rowdy, blues and punk influenced rock-n-roll while Southern Renaissance man, JD Wilkes, channels a dark arts shaman to recount the Southern Gothic folklore of his home. Colored by the devastation of his recent divorce, the album starts and ends with a Voodoo curse and tells a cautionary tale of forgiveness, just like any good murder ballad.
While these songs tell their own stories and stand on their own, there are some lyrical tie-ins with Wilkes's new novel, The Vine That Ate the South, a book praised by NPR as "undeniably one of the smartest, most original Southern Gothic novels to come along in years." The vivid Southern Gothic tales and imagery that he has long been known for in song, gets the long-form treatment in his first novel.
As adept at expressing the heart-wrenchingly personal as he is at spinning Southern folklore, Wilkes allows songs of fury and forgiveness to flow like the same phases that are lived in times of loss and recovery. With commitment, the band rides the wave, providing moments both gnarly and nuanced. A band of brothers, there to help, determined to make it to shore any goddamn way they can.
No other Legendary Shack Shakers record comes close to capturing the full scope of its songwriter's angst. Raw emotion channeled through good ole southern-fried music has made the band infamous for their unique brand of Americana.
After You've Gone was recorded at SampsonSound in Atlanta, Georgia. The band is JD Wilkes on piano, harmonica and vocals, Rod Hamdallah on guitar and background vocals, Fuller Condon on upright bass and Preston Corn on drums.
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Catch Legendary Shack Shakers on tour this Fall
9/1 Cookeville, TN, Muddy Roots Music
9/2 Paducah, KY, Maiden Alley Cinema
9/3 Lexington, KY, The Burl
9/14 Omaha, NE, Reverb
9/15 Sioux Falls, SD, Bigs Sports Bar and Billards
9/16 Deadwood, SD, Downtown
9/17 Kearney, NE, J-Rod's Rock Shop
9/19 Des Moines, IA, Lefty's Live Music
9/20 Minneapolis, MN, Uptown VFW
9/21 Milwaukee, WI, Club Garibaldi
9/22 Rock Island, IL, Rock Island Brewing
9/23 Chicago, IL, Subterranean
10/4 Jacksonville, FL, Jack Rabbits
10/5 Orlando, FL, Will's Pub
10/6 Miami, FL, Churchills Pub
10/7 Sarasota, FL, Kelly's Live
10/8 Gainesville, FL, The Wooly
10/9 Tallahassee, FL, Fifth and Thomas
10/11 Chapel Hill, NC, Local 506
10/12 Wilmington, NC, Reggie's 42nd St
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