FREAKONS = Mekons + Freakwater

Mekons (beloved, mythical British rabble-rousing beast) and Freakwater (also beloved, yet often derided as godmothers of Alt-Country) have allied their sundry song & dance talents for the forces of good. Together they are FREAKONS. Freakwater and Mekons were bound to each other at the start, by the rich seam of Anthracite coal running the width of the Atlantic Ocean from Wales to the Appalachian Mountains. The music and culture of mineral resource extraction, ecological disaster, and worker exploitation are their shared heritage. FREAKONS, the eponymously-titled album to be released March 22, 2022 (Fluff & Gravy Records), is the first fruit of this visionary musical union. The Mekons and Freakwater have been friends for decades, forged in the punk rock/art school crucibles of late ’70s Leeds and mid ’80s Louisville respectively. Both bands mined British folk and American classic country music for three-chord songs whose lyrics fit the nihilism or political rage or outlandish joy of the moment. Many of these songs were about coal mining. Traditional songs about heroic union organizers, deadly mine disasters, wailing orphans, or mining’s grim history of economic and ecological devastation fit seamlessly alongside each band’s original material. This is where FREAKONS were born, from the very bowels of the earth. Mekons’ Jon Langford & Sally Timms and Freakwater’s Janet Beveridge Bean & Catherine Irwin are joined here by the stellar string and vocal harmonies of Jean Cook (Ida, Tara Jane O’Neil, Skull Orchard) and Anna Krippenstapel (The Other Years, Joan Shelley, Freakwater), along with special guest, the beloved guitar genius Jim Elkington (Jeff Tweedy, Richard Thompson, Eleventh Dream Day, Horse’s Ha, Skull Orchard, Freakwater, The Zincs). Belgian painter Jo Clauwaert created the album’s intricate gatefold cover. Images from song lyrics and related history emerge and recede again in this gorgeously illustrated artistic fever dream. The album opens with the epic Dark Lords Of The Mine, wherein Jon Langford channels fellow Welshman, Richard Burton, the son of a coal miner. Burton’s “Great Atlantic Fault” is a mythical seam of coal running from the Basque country of Northern Spain, beneath the Bay of Biscay, up through Wales and all the way to the Appalachian mountains of Kentucky. Rising from this fantastical submarine chasm, the FREAKONS now stand upon the bones of these ancient forests and flattened dinosaurs. Chestnut Blight is possibly the most cheerful song ever written about the near-extinction of the American Chestnut tree. FREAKONS show off the diversity of their skills by singing about both man-made and naturally-occurring ecological catastrophes. The gothic ballad Judy Belle Thomson is a tribute to the West Virginia activist Judy Bonds who fought against mountaintop removal until her death in 2011. Janet Bean’s soaring lead vocal, along with valkyrian harmonies and swirling string section transport the listener through this darkly beautiful mountain landscape. Sally Timms doles out some rough justice on this Blackleg Miner. This song says do not cross the picket line! On Coorie Doon, by Scottish songwriter Matt McGinn, Sally Timms’s haunting voice exhorts us to snuggle down and rest peacefully in the gloom, while dreamy FREAKONS vocal harmonies carry us up and away into the clear blue sky. Phoebe Snow conjures the fictitious, blindingly-white advertising spokesmodel for the Delaware, Lackawanna, & Western Railroad. Catherine Irwin’s delirious saga beseeches us to climb aboard the early 20th century version of “clean coal.” The FREAKONS trade verses and characters as this unexpected rock opera rollercoaster ratchets towards its final vertiginous descent. The Mannington Mine Disaster, by West Virginia singer-songwriter and union agitator Hazel Dickens, tells the story of a deadly 1968 mine explosion. Learning about Hazel Dickens’s travels in Wales, and her work for solidarity between Welsh and Appalachian miners, was foundational to the FREAKONS. Sara Ogan Gunning’s Dreadful Memories is a heartbreakingly natural choice for a FREAKONS cover. Her upside-down interpretation of the gospel classic “Precious Memories” is pure atheist gold. Blue Scars Of A Miner is the perfect closer for the album. This live recording from The Hideout in Chicago captures all the wistful, blurry regret of “last call,” as we raise our empty glasses to Welsh superman Tom Jones and “another chorus of Delilah…” There is madness and joy and grieving here. FREAKONS is a labor of love, full of songs intended for emerging from the darkness into the light. With enough pressure and time, coal can turn into diamonds. FREAKONS are here.

Press Materials

Album Download Album Cover Press Photos (credit: Connie Ward) One Sheet Bio Lyrics

Credits

Track by Track Credits (full details at link) Recorded at  Hideout Tavern Chicago by Metro Mobile (Dan Glomski and Timothy R Powell) and Kingsize Soundlabs (John Abbey) Mixed by Freakons and John Abbey Mastered at Joyride Studio (Blaise Barton)  Freakons are Janet Beveridge Bean (acoustic guitar, tenor guitar, melodica, percussion, vocals), Jean Cook (violin, vocals, box drum), Catherine Irwin (acoustic guitar, percussion, vocals), Anna Krippenstapel (violin, vocals), Jon Langford (acoustic guitar, organ, vocals), and Sally Timms (vocals) With special guests Jim Elkington (electric guitar, pedal steel, dobro, bass), and John Abbey (bass)

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