WORDS Tom Jean PHOTO Jon Kohn
The fact that northern Alabama’s Pine Hill Haints defy categorization does not mean that critics haven’t been trying their damnedest to fit their music into a tidy box for years.
Various reviews will refer to the band, which formed in 1998, as “rockabilly” or “traditional revivalists,” but don’t believe it; that would too simple, and selling them way, way short.
Although their music certainly contains elements of what punters would typically recognize as signifiers of the genres above, what sets the Haints apart from other self-proclaimed “keepers of the flame” we’ve seen come and go over the years is their ability to weave a rich, informed - yet wholly original - musical tapestry from an obviously deep, ingrained knowledge of the entire spectrum of American song and form, all the while steering clear of the novelty or irony that lesser bands would fall back on.
One can imagine Jamie Barrier and Matt Bakula (PHH’s principal songwriters/singers) as kids having raided their parents diverse album collections of Appalachian music, early country-blues, folk, pop calypso, crooners, and early rock ‘n’ roll. Then, after absorbing that stuff, and perhaps being temporarily distracted by punk and ska during their “rebellious teen” years, setting their energies to the study of various 19th century musics such as field hollers, spirituals, Civil War balladry, creole and ragtime. No joke, you hear all of this music in them.
They have managed to craft this distinctive sound for themselves with an individual, decidedly bare-bones approach; The Pine Hill Haints give you a whole lotta music with a pretty minimalist setup. Most of the members switch between multiple instruments - in addition to singing, Jamie plays guitar and fiddle, and Matt plays washtub bass (not an easy instrument, folks), and tenor banjo. Katie Barrier plays washboard percussion, mandolin and saw (a lost art - rarely heard these days). Add the facile, single snare drum of Ben Rhyne and the accordion of Sarah Nelson, and you will find a literate and road-hardened unit that has attracted a respectable national and international following (they seem to tour constantly), along with an impressive affiliation with Olympia, Washington-based outsider Calvin Johnson’s K Records, for which they have released three very satisfying full-length lp’s (available on iTunes and Amazon).
Catch them when they headline the Southern Makers festival and experience what music insiders have known for years: The Pine Hill Haints are an Alabama treasure. www.thepinehillhaints.com