There’s no song like a country song. Whether you’re into Charley Pride, Hank Williams, Hank Williams Jr., Johnny Cash, Tammy Wynette, Patsy Cline or the “new school” of Garth Brooks, Trace Adkins, Miko Marks and a score of others, there’s not a doubt in my mind that country’s roots are entwined with the blues both musically and lyrically. Some of the saddest songs I’ve ever heard were from either of these genres, usually by men, who’ve acted up so bad that they drove their woman, and sometimes their dog, away.
Today we’re going to look at and listen to some dark country songs that go even deeper into the human psyche, past crying into your beer or sittin on the porch weeping, into murder, mayhem and ghosts.
The first one is by a musician who performs one of my all time favorite country songs. The Charlie Daniels Band is perhaps best known for its rollicking fiddle-fest “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”, but they also did a mysterious song that tells of a swamp, an old man and a treasure.
It’s a song that tells a story and it starts off like this:
Well, if you ever go back into Wooley Swamp
Well, you better not go at night
There’s things out there in the middle of them woods
That make a strong man die from fright
Things that crawl and things that fly
And things that creep around on the ground
And they say the ghost of Lucius Clay
Gets up and he walks around
To say anything further would ruin the scarily told/sung story, so click here to listen for yourself:
As a child, Johnny Cash’s rumbling bass always used to scare me. It also didn’t help that he was called “The Man in Black” which rendered him as some sort of evil being floating around, scaring kids with his guitar and flashy country shirts. As I grew older, however, I was more able to appreciate the music and I give you “Ghost Riders in the Sky”. Can’t get much scarier than that.
Rachel Brooke – The Black Bird
This sparse arrangement leaves room for Rachel Brooke’s hauntingly innocent sounding voice to a story of illicit love…and that black bird always watching. Also, the video is pretty creepy too!
Comment below with your dark country artists!
Dahlia
If you are a horror fan from way back, and lived in the New York area, certainly you remember the 4:30 movies on WABC, channel 7. They aired after The Edge of Night and were all those cheesy 70s movies we know and love. Oftentimes, they would have a “theme week:”, such as Godzilla week, Gamera week, Monster week, Planet of the Apes week etc. I always loved the Vincent Price/Edgar Allen Poe week. It was a fun, not too scary, kinda cheesy introduction for kids to horror films.
Hello again! So glad to see y’all along with me for the ride Halloween blogging, or, as I call it……BLOGTOBERFEST……..
Keeping it simple for today. Here’s a graphic that give you ten of my favorite zombie movies. In case image doesn’t come through, here they are in no particular order.
1. Trilogy of Terror– is my all time scary movie. There is just something about that damn doll, like maybe it gnawed my ankles off in a past life or something but I have only watched this film once. Trying to get up the nerve to do it again, but…that doll!