“Old Scratch Comes to Appalachia” is a story of the dark one riding the rails to collect souls from the small corners of the world. It illustrates how the line between what’s good and what’s evil can be blurred once corruption has taken hold. The instrumentation of the song features a lot of elements to really give the song a dark, backwoods kind of feel; shovel guitar, cigar box guitars, and even a banjo make an appearance.
The animation was done by Troy Darr with Chaos Cartoons, and I am thrilled with the job he did. It’s my first time seeing one of my stories in visual form, and it was great to watch it all come together in that form. Coming on June 23rd, the album will coincide with the release of Dee’s fifth book, “Old Scratch Comes to Appalachia (four devilish novelettes).” CD1 of the two-disc set will feature ten songs, while CD2 will feature the audiobook of the title novelette, read by the author.
Written during COVID lockdowns, the songs on OSCtA include a number of non-traditional stringed instruments such as cigar box guitars, shovel guitars, and diddley bows. Again joining Dee are bassist Louis Strachan and percussionist Rob Calhoun (who sings lead vocals on two tracks).
“Old Scratch Comes to Appalachia” will be released by Argonauta Records on CD and DIGITAL, and “Old Scratch Comes to Appalachia (four devilish novelettes)” will be available from Kindle Direct Publishing, each on June 23rd.
TRACKLIST:
1. The Day the Rats Came to Town
2. Verachte Diese Hure
3. A Wish in the Darkness
4. New Modern World
5. Conjured
6. Pulse
7. Self-Inflicted
8. Stand With Me
9. All I Need is One
10. Old Scratch Comes to Appalachia