All Them Witches formed in 2012 (the 6th of January to be more accurate), in the musical haven that is Nashville, Tennessee. The band is on the cusp of releasing their third studio record in four years. Along with their studio albums they have also put out a live album and four EP’s. These include Born Under a Bad Sign, the twenty five minute epic that is Effervescent (2013) and on the 20th of April 2015 they released the A Sweet Release EP.
Guess what? It’s amazing and very psychedelic. It takes you away from the world that you’re in. Even if you like that world, this EP and Effervescent take you on a journey to the most relaxing yet wonderfully wacky place, one that I will be visiting many, many more times.
All Them Witches’ first full length album, Our Mother Electricity (2012), is a great debut. It is a showcase of the band’s talent and wide ranging musical styles, from songs like Heavy/Like A Witch, a heavy rock number, to the laid back track Easy. The album moves on through to the stunning Family Song For Leaving. If you purchase the special addition then you get the additional track I Can’t Even See Myself which is a thumper. The song creates some great imagery with its lyrics. I’d go as far as saying this first album is as near to perfect a debut that a band has ever gotten. It may be high praise but it is truly deserved. Our Mother Electricity allowed All Them Witches to embrace their eccentricity for the follow up, Lightning at the Door (2013).
The band did not wait around and released the album Lightning At The Door, just one year later. Kicking this masterpiece off is Funeral For a Great Drunken Bird, which is a slow building song that infuses the best of the band’s psychedelic elements: a grand start indeed. Following this, the quartet ramp up the volume and distortion in the next notable track, When God Comes Back, before the song that introduced me to this band, The Marriage of Coyote Woman. It is spectacular. It takes you back to a great slow blues infused psychedelic piece.
Charles William is the fantastic progressive rock number of the album, with its great bass intro to the brilliant classic keys solo that blasts through when it comes around. Penultimately there is the instrumental track Romany Dagger. It is a very different song to your average everyday track and indeed to the rest of the album, but it still fits perfectly on Lightning at The Door and with All Them Witches’ work prior and since.
This is why I implore you to give this outstanding band a listen. Charles Michael Parks Jr, Ben McLeod, Robby Staebler and Allan Van Cleave have created some of the best and most exciting music in a very short time frame. You need to Check ‘Em Out.
