The Sacred. The Profane. The Mississippi Delta, Blind Willie Johnson, biscuits and gravy, Broomstraw Philosophers and sweet Suppernong wine, ID Stamper and his mountain dulcimer, Nuemberg County Kentucky, Dock Boggs, the hills and hollers of East Tennessee, Hobart Smith, The Bible Belt, Roscoe Holcomb, Clarence Ashley, the Raymond Mississippi police force, Charlie Patton, Muddy Waters, coal mining, Robert Johnson, The War of Northern Agression, sourwood honey, Son House, hot water corn bread, Uncle Dave Macon, The Ozark Mountains, the North Carolina Piedmont, The Wolof Empire, Soul Food Kitchens across the South, Alan Lomax, .40 caliber handguns, The Pentecostal Church, the share cropping system, Dockery Farm, Parchman Farm, the Lost State of Franklin, 2 dollar shoes that tend to hurt your feet, ghost trees, approaching thunderstorms, Junior Kimbrough, turkey buzzards, Jessco White, Buford Pusser, A.P. Carter and the family, the Sacred Steel Churches down in Florida, Dillard Chandler, The King James Bible, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Smith and Wesson, Crisco, kudzu jelly, Riley Baugus, James Dickey, The Melungeons, the Bell Witch of Tennessee, the Texas Penal Code, the Black Mountain TB sanitarium, Bukka White, Black Sabbath, Harry Crews, Daniel Boone, shadows in churchyard cemetaries, dusty bibles, Old Joe Clark, corn whiskey, fried catfish and collard greens, tent revivals, Frye Boots and bacon grease, William Faulkner, The Mighty Mississippi River and its drainage basin, Otha Turner, Angola State Penitentiary, the pea vine line, coon hounds, the Nantahala forest, river levees, flat footin', boiled peanuts, Harlan County Kentucky, the Ohoopee River Bottomland, Wild Turkey Rare Breed, Tommy Jarrell, gourd banjos, grain measure banjos, the Scotch-Irish, black mandrake, Johnny Cash, Bourbon County KY, North Carolina style bar-b-que, Flannery O' Connor, John Lee Hooker, R.L. Burnside, the Church of Jesus Christ with Signs Following, kerosene heaters, wood stoves, and coal furnaces, Hank Williams and his grandson, the TVA, mules, The George Dickel Distillery, Uncle Herschel, concealed carry permits, tongue speaking, Muscadine grapes, the early novels of Cormac McCarthy, what Breece D'J Pancake managed to write before he he blew off his head with a shotgun, sawmill tuning, Sand Mountain, the stretch of Interstate 40 between Asheville NC and Memphis TN, the Blue Fugates of Troublesome Creek, did we mention The War of Northern Agression?
Sounds Like
the American South. The place that we live. The soil in our hearts and the ground beneath our feet. The place where we will breathe our last breath.
"Omie Wise" by Gin Stevens
"...the bands originals and reworked traditional songs bear witness to the virtues of the raucous and reflective alike, paying homage to the glut of influences that merged in the South to create its music." --11th HOUR, Macon GA
"...a Tennessee-based trio who do this crazed amalgamation of old-time ballads set to loud, grungy blues rock. It’s very dark and eerie and completely satisfying." --MOUNTAIN XPRESS, Asheville NC
"If you can only afford to buy five independent records this year then I suggest you make this one of them." --BLUES IN LONDON.COM, London UK
"Blood-soaked country blues, creaky garage rock and front-porch whiskey ballads from this Tennessee trio." --THE FLAGPOLE, Athens GA
“Serving up a musical experience that is both modern and timeless, Creech Holler offers an innovative approach to The South’s musical history.”
--TRICITIES.COM, Johnson City TN
"...Zentner, Campbell and Brooks have always attacked their blend of traditional influences with a punishing sort of garage-rock intensity. Their music has never lacked in fervor or confidence, but this time they sound as if they've slipped even further into the dark trance themselves."
--THE NASHVILLE SCENE, Nashville, TN
"...while this music embraces you lovingly with a cupped drone it also hits with a barrage of reckless abandon and whup ass."
--ROOTSSCENE, New York NY
"This Nashville band channels traditional, pain-laced, bluesy Appalachian music and through electric guitars, amps and drums for the younger generation. Its both a little bit country and a little bit rock and roll."
--THE CHATTANOOGA PULSE, Chattanooga TN
"With a sound that's part black magic and part reverent Southern evangelista, Murfreesboro-based Creech Holler plays to exorcise its own demons, but also to flaunt them in front of others, those who don't have the same gifts of darkness..."
--THE METRO PULSE, Knoxville TN
"If you were looking for the missing link between the hoedown and the black mass then look no further..."
--LEICESTERBANGS, UK
"The music of Creech Holler is earthy, dark and riddled with secrets - just like the mountains that birthed it."
--SKULLRING.ORG
“These guys take you to some serious, heavy places using the language, and sometimes, the literal songs of another era to illuminate our own. “Poor Ol’ Maddie” and “Black Mountain” are dark songs from the weird, old America that doesn’t exist much anymore in mainstream culture.” --THE GREAT AMERICAN MUSIC HOUR
“Creech Holler is the sound of sin and redemption of another time when such matters were taken as gospel and music was the stories that frightened children and set them on the path to righteousness.” –-TWANG NATION
"...Creech Holler travels deep into Appalachians, deep into the American psyche, deep into the past and dig up traditional songs you've never heard of but you know are part of your heritage and channel them through a hard rock filter to transform them into something deep, gothic, and inspired."
--TAPROOT RADIO
“This is fierce, dark, passionate music that should be investigated by fans of the contemporary garage-band movement.”
--KINGSPORT TIMES, Kingsport TN
"The Murfreesboro trio’s mix of originals and folk traditionals, combined with a sound both ethereal and raw, have the edge and danger of snake handlers in church or Civil War re-enacters using real bullets and firing on the spectators." --THE AMPLIFIER, Bowling Green KY
"The dark storylines and thick, fuzzy, primitive rhythms of Creech Holler's music take you to a Mississippi delta juke joint or a mountainside in Appalachia..." --JOHNSON CITY PRESS, Johnson City TN
"Describing its style as Southern Gothic, Creech Holler gives an ominous twist to a sound that has existed for generations." --KNOXVILLE NEWS SENTINEL, Knoxville TN
"From the time you start playing their CD, With Signs Following, you feel catapulted straight into a scene of “Deliverance”. There’s an eeriness merging with an ethereal quality that is both terrifying and mystifying."
--ENIGMA, Chattanooga TN
"...their maniacal guitar, bass and drum bashing, more often than not coupled with eerie, hypnotic melodicas floating over the top, sends shivers down the spine."--WHISPERIN and HOLLERIN, Republic of Ireland
"This Tn.-based trio soaks old Harry Smith-caliber mountain ballads in a rotgut whiskey barrel before straining them out through electrified, house-rockin’ garage blues. This is one unsettling and occasionally terrifying bad trip you’ll actually hope goes on for a while." --CONNECT SAVANNAH, Savannah GA
“This Tennessee trio explores the darker side of Americana, employing melodica, tambourine and droning guitar to create a spooky sonic mood. If you liked the canceled HBO series ‘Carnivale,’ you'll probably like this band. Both deal with the Bible, the conflict between good and evil and the forthright passions of rural whites.”
--MACON TELEGRAPH, Macon GA
Creech Holler plays the music of midnight whiskey stills and front porches. of those whose sole act of contrition before god was to make song of their sin and sorrow. of those who have been to dark places, and who left their soul there. of those who deemed it necessary to kill some poor son of a bitch who had it coming to them, and then deemed it necessary to sing a song about it. of those who loved the sacred and the profane in equal measure; who played the devil's music on saturday night, and god's music on sunday morning. of those who have trod black paths so long that they have forgotten the light, but not so long so as to forget to bring their gun and a shovel. of those who saw fit to salve their wounds with the banjo, the fiddle, the guitar. of those who know no other way to touch the face of god than to take the venomous serpent to their breast, and drink deadly things, and take up fire, and live or die by the power of their faith and the force of their will and the sweat of their backs. Creech Holler is the hills and hollers of east tennessee and the fields of the delta, and the regret and desires and vain hopes of redemption buried under their soil. it's everywhere that america's bad blood flows and gives birth to hymns to the wrong that lives in low men's hearts. it's the ghosts of america's music reborn in furious electricity.
Oh, the honour is all mine, believe me. I stumbled on you guys several days ago, and I love your sound. It's both eerie and appealing, which for me is an irresistible combination. I especially love Devil's Eyes (I added it on my other page as soon as I listened ;) So, thank you very much for accepting my request :) xxx
Yes..I've been following somewhat your musique for a few years now via the net...great stuff you have...seems we have some similar tastes and instrumentation...I was thinking of sending a demo to Dark Holler....of Violets' Musique...Do stay in touch...I am in Colorado, in the Countryside, I also do the Weeping Hollyhocks musique it is a sister project I did in a couple of days...more ambient/experimental folk...Violets is more "Dark Folk"...Matt
Just did a road trip to Winnipeg and back... listened to "With Signs, Following" at least half a dozen times on the ride.... so hits the spot.... Black Mountain... in the prairie... perfect. Thanks.
I was watching the first season of True Blood and noticed that Chris Offutt had a writing credit on the show, which of course made me think of you guys. When are you playing Nashville or BG again? We miss you! And in case you haven't watched it yet, True Blood is good shit. :-)
hey man!!!!
I like it
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