SC Distributon

“Tales of Crime (Part 1)” b/w “Tales of Crime (Part 2)” is the Pine Hill Haints’ first 7” released by K. “Tales of Crime (Part 1)” attempts to express the dirty south, the home of the blues, the ancient father to son craft of whiskey and aging gardening in the mountains, and a cynical history, smashed and destroyed by the modern era of green star capitalism . . .

Welcome to the Midnight Opry [KLP236] is the third full-length album by The Pine Hill Haints. It’s a burning tumbleweed headed straight for an open field in the middle of a dry summer; bright, dangerous, vast, and blistering. Laid out before you is a full rotation of snazzed-up, working class ghost-country. The contradiction allows you to mentally wander from one track to the other on an emotional journey from the range to the rock show, whatever you want to make of it within those parameters, that’s what it is.

A ragged collection of junk musicians and travelers, the Pine Hill Haints have journeyed to hold Midnight Opries across the basements of Babylon for over a decade. Here with To Win or to Lose [KLP208], their second long player on K Records, the topics move further into the forest shadows, with tales of modern America and the ghosts of its past and reflects the ancient idea of the Great Hunt, the hounds and the horn of impending doom; this record has fast songs about living and self-destruction, songs of natural disaster, public domain dance music, and tales of friends, brothers and sisters who walk the streets, sleep in the dumpsters or backseats of cars, or jump trains. A Valentine croon and a roaring train wreck.

Growing up in the lower Appalachians, The Pine Hill Haints learned its sound from old men and women playing on porches and in living rooms, under ancient oak trees and paper mill forests. The 19 tracks on this album are a massive flow of music. Some songs were written on the day of the recording, and others 400 years ago. “When You Fall” and “Say Something Say Anything” explore the feeling of holding an empty hand out to someone you love. “Phantom Rules” and “Raggle-Taggle Gypsy” channel Africa, the Cherokee Nation, Ireland, and the modern times.