Biography

The Pine Hill Haints have spent the last two decades resurrecting all kinds of music that has passed out of the mainstream – in a style they call “Alabama Ghost Country.” “In some ways, we preceded the whole roots movement,” Haints bandleader Jamie Barrier says. “But in other ways, nobody preceded anything. I guess where we were coming from has a lot more teeth for me than what's happening now. People are almost afraid to say they love country without trying to up the rock side. But I think about the Carter Family just playing “You Are My Sunshine.” The purity and emotion of that. It's almost like the hardest angle to find in country music today, so we wanted to really go there.” On the band's latest long-player, The Song Companion of a Lonestar Cowboy, they go there. The fifteen song sequence kicks off with “Fall Asleep” and “Back to Alabama,” a fiery pair of rockabilly-meets-Irish-jig rave-ups, then winds through standout tracks like the Bo Diddley-grooved “Pretty Thing,” a pounding tom-tom and fiddle take on the traditional “John Henry” and the catchy, cajun-flavored squeezebox pop of “Lone Star Kid.” Throughout, Barrier's strong tenor voice rings familiar and friendly, and the band plays with a sense of abandon that comes from thousands of gigs behind them. It all sounds deceptively simple, but anyone who plays music knows better. The Haints do something very few roots bands can, which is to transcend influences and sculpt age-old sounds into soul music for our time.