Horehound

Horehound is so good I need to write about it. It's been a LONG time since I heard something that really moved me, and this only happens when all the stars align and the right person with the right message with the right bass line and the right melody all coalesce into the one thing that I've been dying to hear but had no idea. The Dead Weather is one of those things. A spur of the moment idea of an album that took around three weeks to make with no prep or logic on how they might tour. Just musicians getting together for the love of music and the sake of experimentation.

Now i'll be the first to admit I was suspect when I heard that Jack White was ina new group and he wasn't lead vocals OR guitar (are you TRYING to kill me?) But I trusted him, this was his idea, his vision. It is also the first production off of his new label Third Man, a place in Nashville in which I will make a pilgrimage and is named after White's first job. So if I'm such a fan that I can stalk out this kind of information, where was the resistance to the formation of this group actually coming from you might ask. It's just that lately I've been stuck listening to Ruth Brown, Memphis Minnie, Julia Lee, Sister Rosetta and the likes. I've been stuck in a time warp and want my music to have some sort of authenticity, some sort of history, some sort of... soul. I'm not really a HUGE fan of The Kills or Queens of the Stone Age, and even though I love the Raconteurs, it's just White really that grabs me. So, I was suspect.

The first time I turned this album on... dammit. I hate to start from the end but Will There Be Enough Water, has guitar reminiscent of the great blues Guitarists from Mali, with that slow story telling drawl in the darkness that is embossed with southern spiritual sounding vocals from the back up singers. The drums keep the song focused in the same way a ghost makes you squint at night. I could get lost in this song and never come back. It brought out a grimy, primal, instinctive love that makes me keep coming back. It's simply a masterpiece. The video that accompanies this song is a bit of black and white cinema that reminds me of The Notorious Betty Paige, directed by Mary Harron, Paige was also from Nashville. If you have the time check it out.

The album opens with 60 Feet Tall, written by Fertita and Mosshart. This song is so raw, and Mosshart's raspy voice brings this song right into the era I had already been listening to lately. The thing that was magical that happened on this album was all the elements I had been previously been listening to, were met here. The story telling, the darkness, the bass lines, the vocals... the blues. Which brings me to So Far From Your Weapon. I was NOT ready. This song was instantly inducted to the classics when I heard it the first time. Whatever my opinion of Mosshart was prior to this album, I'll never question her songwriting skills again. I FEEL this song. Not in the omg I'm at a party and this makes me want to move type way, no I feel this in my bones, in my voice, I feel that the bullet was cursed. This song can bring you to a place you might not be ready for if you let it.

I tried to go back and listen to The Kills to try to find more of this but I couldn't, all the elements were just not there. The collective just brought it out of her, all of them, I think. I think this is the kind of work I've been looking for that artists used to do in the 70's, just sit and do jam sessions together, be creative, bounce ideas off each other and collaborate. Only instead of Hendrix and Davis just talking about, these four actually DID it. I'm going to stop rambling and hope that you go ahead and give this a listen. If you really think you love rock, and you really think you know the blues, then this will knock your socks off. I promise.