The third installment in Th' Legendary Shack*Shakers "Tent Show Trilogy," the band's new album Swampblood was inspired by front freak J.D. Wilkes' new home in western Kentucky. "It's a strange place, man. It's this creepy blend of Appalachia, delta and the swamp, all combining to form a strange, strange beast."

This version of Th' Shack*Shakers sinister southern-gothic includes elements of but moves past previous forays into the eastern European influences on American roots music, widening its lens to take into frame the African rhythms that led directly to the field hollers and oft-overlooked Vodun spirituals at the black heart of the blues.

On Swampblood, mountain-born banjo rolls slither around with dirty blues riffs a la Tony Joe White and Slim Harpo. Despite its disparate yet somehow incestuous elements, Swampblood succeeds in an accessibility never before experienced on any Shack*Shakers album.

On the title track "Swampblood" Wilkes' freight train harmonica work sears the wound cut by the hollow bodied stomp of David Lee's guitar line. Lyrically, like much of the album, the tune explores the darker truth behind those all too familiar stories from a south where cross-eyed grannies inhabit a world of three-legged dogs and secret lynchings. "Hellwater" was created to address J.D.'s idea that, "The world needs another Creedence." Fluid Fogherty-like guitar lines swim under lyrics extolling both the cleansing effects and retribution inducing aspects of the bottle and the archetypal flood.

In addition to exploring the underbelly of a "new" south through music, the performer that the Dead Kennedy's Jello Biafra called "the last great front man in rock n' roll," has decided to investigate it on film. Wilkes says his new documentary Seven Signs, "...interweaves the stories of several musicians, artists and local legends to show how the Southern Experience is different from (and invaluable to) the rest of the world." Featuring stars ranging from Scott H. Biram to a two-headed baby in a jar, Seven Signs documents J.D.'s search for the real south, the south still in possession of it's own soul (no matter how disturbing that soul might be), the one lingering on amidst the "McMansions" and sterile mega-churches blotting the land. The film features a soundtrack featuring Th' Shack*Shakers and bands helping to define the new southern underground. Wilkes is also rolling forward with his burgeoning visual art career with a joint opening of his work along with the work of new *Shakers drummer Brent Whitacre at Nashville gallery PlowHaus on July 20th.

Wilkes is hardly the only Legendary Shack*Shaker with news to report. Gretsch guitars will be honoring guitarist David Lee with a signature model which will be released later this summer. Fender (parent company of Gretsch) will be releasing an accompanying amplifier complete with grill cover featuring Wilkes' artwork.