Bumps in the night and strange scratching sounds were thought to simply be animals outside and the wind blowing the pear tree against the wall outside. The exact beginning of the haunting is hard to date, due to so many of the early events being explained off as odd, but natural.
ANDREW BIRD BELL WITCH SERIES
Then a series of odd and unexplained noises began around the family and the farmhouse.
Betsy witnessed an unknown girl in a green dress swinging from the old oak tree. An impossibly large bird near the fields, a great black dog on the road. Their tale of terror began with unknown creatures lurking in the woods. John Bell, along with his wife, four sons and daughter Betsy lived a quiet life on their family farm just outside the town of Adams, Tennessee, in the northwest corner of Robertson County. The Bell Witch, an entity of unknown origins laid a reign of terror over the Bell family for four long years before vanishing as mysteriously as it appeared. A haint of the Old South, a demon down in Dixie. A mere amusement to many, a supernatural curiosity to others, and to some a terrifying tormentor. A family is besieged by an invisible force with the power to speak, move objects, and even harm the living. Forty miles north of Nashville, Tennessee lay a small farming community on the banks of the Red River. It closes out Mathus and Bird’s soulful and warm partnership on music few others could create this casually and flawlessly.1817, the American South. Only the hardest heart won’t be tearing up as Bird’s famous high lonesome whistle and droning fiddle leaves the record on a particularly spectral note. The closing ‘Three White Horses and a Golden Chain’, the longest and most emotionally wrenching selection, describes the process of dying with beauty and sadness. The chugging rhythm of ‘Sweet Oblivion’, with both voices harmonizing as they reflect on earlier days, are examples of how bittersweet and sporadically chilling these tunes are. The duo plainly love this music, but instead of just covering musty classics, have crafted new songs every bit as genuine.īird’s fiddle swirls around Mathus’ stark guitar on the story of the womanizing ‘High John’ and the otherworldly pump organ sounds of the brief instrumental ‘Bright Sunny Southland’. These lyrics and performances are so unaffected, fully realized and honest that they don’t feel stilted or, perhaps worse, a caricature of the deep rural influences Bird and Mathus have internalized. But even if the topics seem clichéd, the concepts are never stale. Songs about occultists (‘Bell Witch’), death (‘Stonewall 1863’, ‘Sweet Oblivion’), gambling (‘Jack O’ Diamonds’) and of course matters of romance usually gone wrong (‘Burn the Honky Tonk’, ‘Beat Still My Heart’), touch most of the standard country tropes. Bird’s more mellifluous voice is offset by the gruffer, swampier singing of Mathus, the combination cohering remarkably well as the twosome dig into ballads, waltz-timed country and laid back bluegrass with an authenticity that is clearly heartfelt. Mathus and Bird take this music seriously, maintaining the somewhat ghostly, ominous string-based approach without a hint of affectation or posturing. The baker’s dozen of co-written originals are so true to form and organic that, without reading the credits, the listener might mistake these for obscure Carter family tracks from the ‘30’s and ‘40s. The 13 spare, acoustic tracks find the duo mostly playing guitar and fiddle (with banjo and pump organ added for good measure) as they reach back, way back - to a rustic classic sound combining unadorned blues, country, and gospel. He also worked alongside other similarly inclined American musicians like Alvin Youngblood Hart and Luther Dickinson in the South Memphis String Band,whose lone 2012 release is well worth searching out.ĭespite both their profilic careers – this is Bird and Mathus’ first collaborative recording. Mathus has likewise kept his rootsy fires burning – his series of generally low key, some may say ragtag, efforts specialized in a raw blues/folk/country style. Fiddle player/singer/songwriter Bird became a headliner of medium sized venues, as he rolled through sixteen wildly eclectic and increasingly popular solo albums that mixed folk and edgy pop along with strains of jazz, classical and rock. They haven’t recorded together in over 20 years, but both stayed busy - really busy.
That occasionally boisterous mid-90s outfit – with their rooty-toot-tootin' mix of big band swing and New Orleans hot jazz - is light years away from the defiantly stripped down music on this alluring, often freewheeling outing. Don't be misled by Jimbo Mathus and Andrew Bird’s previous association in the original Squirrel Nut Zippers.