The Shaky Gallows Saloon

Gerald Cushion, of Last Chance Music, caught up with the boys at an abandoned industrial complex just outside of Amarillo, TX.

 

Q:  It's has been two years since "Old Cuts" was released, what the hell have you guys been doing for so long?

Shakes:  You know what I despise? Journalists who can’t be bothered to do a little bit of goddamned research before they sit down for an interview. Have you even heard a single record we’ve made? It’s called New Cuts and Old Wounds.

Mean JD:  I think we should move on…

Q:  How is this album different/similar to the previous ones?

Shakes:  The pain and hurt are from different things. This time out we spent more time hammering things out on the road before we went into the studio. It was nice to spend some time with the songs, especially in the bucket-of-blood joints we were playing. A place like that, all you’ve got between yourself and a broken beer bottle are the chords that you’re playing … and if those don’t work, it’s good to have a solid-body electric guitar in your hands.

Q:  Would you call this a "concept album?"  Or, what would you call it?

Shakes:  Bloody. The sonic equivalent of a chalk outline around a murder victim. An empty bottle of cheap wine. The overall concept’s the same as it’s always been, though. Make it hurt. I think we pulled it off. There is something deeper there, but I’m not going to get into it. Listen to the songs and you’ll hear the tale.

Mean JD:  You remember that scene in Braveheart where the old guy has gotten an arrow in his chest, and they got to cauterize the wound with a red-hot piece of metal.  That’s what I was thinking about during the album.  You know it is going hurt, but you don’t have a choice.  You got to do it.

Q:  I know choosing favourites is like picking between aborted children, but if you had to, which would you say are favourite tracks on Hornswoggled?

Shakes:  “Greystone Chapel” comes to mind. We locked into a groove on that one. I can tell you for a fact, there’s nothing that feels more like hard time than that song. The title track’s another good one. Hank really stepped up the tempo there.

Mean JD:  I’d agree with Shakes about those two.  The other one I’d mention is “John Maxwell’s Life”, it’s just a great epic tale done in classic Gallows style. 
 
Q:  Any infighting during the recording process?

Mean JD:  Next question.

Q:  How did the recent passing of Blind Willie Doyle influence this album?

Shakes:  We drank more Irish whiskey in his honour. It’s safe to say that there’s not a single sober note on Hornswoggled. We’ve got all the demos for the album, with Willie playing the piano on the songs. We might put them out someday, but it was just too close right now. That’s why we didn’t replace him, either. I played the one piano that is on the album—on “Family  Dinner”—and I didn’t even try to copy what he did on the demo. It’s definitely a more somber tune now, and that’s for Willie. We miss him.

Q:  What has the early response been?

Shakes:  Lots of tears.

Mean JD:  I had one elderly woman, who somehow got her hands on the album, come up and slap me right across the face, saying “You’re an awful person.”  So, the response has been just about right.

Q:  What's next for the band?  Will there be another two-year drought between albums?  Are the rumours of a live album true?

Shakes:  We’re always writing and recording. There are plenty of live tapes in our vault, so yeah, that might be something we do. We’ve got the completed Texas Blood Money album still sitting around, too, and we need to figure out what to do with that. Then again, we might just scrap it all and do something completely different.