Louisiana blues artist Brother Dege celebrates the 10 year anniversary release of his Folk Songs of the American Longhair album with this special limited edition vinyl release.
Says Dege of the album:
This is an album that gestated over the course of 10 years, while I was broke and living in cheap motels, trailer parks, and working kooky-ass odd jobs (embedded journalist, cabdriver, transport driver) and all that sort of comes out – not so much literally – but in a subtextural way in the songs. I wrote half the album while living in a trailer that leaned at a 10 degree angle from having been flipped in Hurricane Lili. Definitely a best of times / worst of times era for me personally. Best in many ways because the creative process of my songwriting was double-pump firing on all cylinders and I just tried to document as much of it as I could – as evidenced in the Demos of the American Longhair recordings, most of which were recorded in the trailer. I later moved into a rent house and home-recorded the entire album, playing a cheap Dobro that had major noise issues. I named it ‘Buzzo.’ The resonator hardware made a lot of noise and buzzing when I played it – like a mad dog growling. I tried wedging pieces of cloth and toothpicks under the cone, but nothing would fix it. Just kept growling. In defeat, I finally accepted that this must be my sound and finished the album not expecting many people to pay much attention to it. Two years after the 2010 release, Quentin Tarantino heard ‘Too Old to Die Young’ on satellite radio and decided to put it in Django Unchained. It’s been a wild trip. And the coolest thing about it is: it ain’t over yet. I’m still doing the same thing, I was then: home recording every record, playing wacky guitars, and trying to write the best songs I am capable of about my experience of the Deep South and beyond.
Here’s a haunting, nearly 10 minute live version of “Old Angel Midnight” from said album.
About the author: Mild-mannered corporate executive by day, excitable Twangville denizen by night.