Welcome to the Midnight Opry (KLP236)
Welcome to the Midnight Opry [KLP236] is the third full-length
album by The Pine Hill Haints and it’s like a burning
tumbleweed headed straight for an open field in the middle
of a dry summer. It’s bright, dangerous, vast, and blistering.
Laid out before you is a full rotation of snazzed-up,
working-class rockabilly. The contradiction there is left open
like that so you’re given all sorts of room to mentally wander
from one track to the other on an emotional journey that
takes you from the range to the rock show – whatever you
want to make it within those parameters, that’s what it is.
Originally from Alabama, The Pine Hill Haints formed in the
late ‘90s and have since released two full-length albums,
both on K. Lead singer James Barrier is a sight to be seen at
their live shows (of which they play many) poised tall and
dandy behind his home-made wooden microphone stand.
He’s backed by a family of a band that provides
honey-toned instrumentation through the use of accordions,
washboard, saws, buckets – and of course the standards:
guitar, bass, and drums.
For this release, the band recorded at Dial Back Sound Studio
in Water Valley Mississippi on 2-inch tape. The tracks were
recorded live in one night, and then mixed the other night;
the end result is anything but slap-dash however, it takes
years of practice to become this quick on the draw.
