New Hair and Th'Legendary Shack Shakers!

I finally got a haircut! It only took me a year and three months. I went to my friend Bethany Davies, vintage make up and hair artist extraordinaire, who runs mobile beauty services, pop-up salons and has a gorgeous little salon in her home too. Here I am ready for Th'Legendary Shack Shakers / Dirt Daubers gig on Sunday.

Here's what I wore - my tiki dress and bolero, which I made a couple of months ago after planning it for over a year. It's already a bit too big for me, bah! (But also yay for bodily shrinkage!)

I don't know what that blur is on my mirror, it's been there forever, I can't tell whether it's hairspray which I've managed to miss while cleaning (OK, so I don't clean often), or whether the silvering is starting to deteriorate, it's a pretty old mirror. Also I really need to get a backdrop or something, I'm sure you're all sick of seeing the craphole that is my bedroom.

Even though I saw them a couple of months ago in Liverpool, I just had to go to see Th'Legendary Shack Shakers again, they never fail to put on a great show.



Supporting were the Dirt Daubers, the rather more traditional side project from Shack Shakers singer, raconteur, lowbrow artist and all round mountain music impresario Col. JD Wilkes, his wife Jessica and bassist Mark Robertson. I particularly liked their rendition of the old Appalachian murder ballad Down in the Willow Garden, and of course I can never resist a band with a banjo and a washboard.





They also had girls' t-shirts in different sizes! I almost burst with joy, despite them not having any vinyl records. It really annoys me how on the rare occasion that bands produce ladies' t-shirts, they are almost always 'one size', and that size is TINY. The lovely Shack Shakers had three ladies' designs from s-xl, so I bought two. Admittedly they had run out of xl in one of them, obviously because it is super cool and everybody wants one, so here I am after wriggling into a slightly scandalous large.

Here I am with my darling friend Natalie outside the venue, it was all finished and we were out by 10.45pm! We are old ladies, evidently. Best dressed old ladies in the nursing home, though.

Shack Shakin' in the Rain!

Last Monday, Some friends and I travelled to a remote pub on Saddleworth Moor to see Th'Legendary Shack Shakers play. They were great! On the way there, there were thunderstorms and downpours, and this is the flash flood we drove through on the way. Despite there only having been five minutes of rain, it covered the wheels of the car!



Here are the band in action. The gig was upstairs at The Royal George, a family restaurant/pub and was organised by the Saddleworth Blues Club. It was rather strange; one side of the room was populated with damp psychobillies who had all crammed into a few cars to drive over from the city, the other side consisted of the ageing gents of the Blues Club, sat around tables like they were at a wedding, but still obviously enjoying it.



Banjo!



Col. JD Wilkes on harmonica



The 'shithouse bass'!



I Bought one of their records which I didn't have yet, Swampblood, a shirt, and I took a poster off the wall and had JD sign it. The Colonel is also a talented artist, you can see some of his comics and quirky, grotesque sideshow banner paintings at his site, www.jdwilkes.com along with his writing and film projects.

If you haven't heard the Shack Shakers, I insist you do so immediately! Their unique Southern Gothic sound draws together elements of blues, punk, polka, hillbilly and horror and encompasses a raw, unpretentious, almost psychotic fervour for traditional American culture and music. A review of the gig will be featured in the next issue of TNS Records Fanzine, out next month (ish!)