The Pine Hill Haints new release, Ghost
Dance, takes its name from the late 19th century Native American
movement. In many ways the movement died in flesh in the 1890’s,
but spiritual the cry has gathered steam. The society we have given ourselves
shines bright, glaring from the green corporate star, taking us away from
the land, away from our spiritual self, and into the great binary plastic
system. The Pine Hill Haints long for a day when this wasn’t the
case, and so, attempt to channel and haunt us with the memory of who we
once were.
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.
Recorded partly by Calvin Johnson in Dub Narcotic Studio, and partly by
Lynn Bridges (Devendra Banhart, Immortal Lee County Killers) at the Black
Owl Trading Co. in Alabama, Ghost Dance is runaway children, train jumpers,
the mystery of life and death, and the smashed skull of the once mighty
Choctaw Nation: these are the themes that run strong throughout the recordings.