The
Arkham
Hillbilly
“Straight outta the Miskatonic Valley, I travel the west with my six-string in one hand and the Necronomicon in the other. With my band The Nashville Shamblers, I sing eldritch country songs. Official Member — Grand Ole Ones Opry!”
Yes, he sings humorous country songs about the “Cthulhu Mythos” of cult 1920s horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. Considering the Venn Diagram of (a) people who like tongue-in-cheek country music and (b) people who are fans of Lovecraft, the Arkham Hillbilly admits that he’s targeting a fairly exclusive market. But it’s a market that he’s got pretty much sewn up.
This started as a lockdown project and, although he was already a friend, I didn’t see him in the flesh until a good year into the fray. He records his own vocal and acoustic guitar parts and sends them to me. I then try and spruce them up before adding drums and bass, then we’ll usually get a session player to add electric guitar, pedal steel guitar, accordion, mandolin or whatever else seems right.
Although I’m not trying to make the recordings literally sound like they were made in the mid-20th century, I do try and limit myself to effects and techniques that are appropriate to the genre being referenced, whether it’s Western Swing, Bluegrass, country rock or rockabilly.
The Great Mold Rush of 1882
A heartfelt retelling of Lovecraft's The Colour Out of Space, in which there is something unnatural in the well…
Jamboree at Innsmouth
In the story The Shadow Over Innsmouth we learn that there is something fishy about the people of that town—literally, as it seems they have been interbreeding with fish-creatures for centuries. This zydeco number puts a happy spin on these folks’ “otherness”.
It Ain’t Gonna Happen Again
A checklist of Lovecraftian sticky situations from the stories. It seems the Arkham Hillbilly has a talent for getting himself into trouble.
Love Theme from Bone Tomahawk
There are romantic elements to the 2015 Western horror movie Bone Tomahawk, though they probably aren’t the bits you remember. Guest vocalist Susy Firth insists “true love knows no fear”.
I Keep Seein’ Things
Our lovelorn singer is driven into the arms of eldritch horrors
Re-Animated
The life and loves of Herbert West, Reanimator, in song form.
Way Down in Dunwich
The Lovecraft tale The Dunwich Horror retold as a country-rock number with ambitious interweaving vocal parts at the end.
A Miskatonic Christmas
The Hillbilly’s first Christmas single, from 2020. I took the opportunity to give it the full Phil Spector treatment!
You Had Me at “Cthulhu”
A romantic take on cultism. This production was made more interesting when the client decided, some way into the job, that he wanted the chorus now to be in a different tempo and time signature from the rest of the song, as you will see…
The Grand Ole Ones Opry
What do you get if you cross country music's famous Grand Ole Opry with Lovecraft's sinister Old Ones? Featuring Dick Smith on banjo and Matt Redman on mandolin