Ok so today, this Twang Tuesday I listened to a little bluegrass from a couple bands that I now forget the names of, so I guess they did not make a big impression, huh! Anyway I had to go to pick up Nick, who was dropping his car off to have the exhaust system fixed tomorrow, so I took the mp3 player with some twangy music that I had previously loaded up. I listened to three albums. First, The Battle of the Wounded Heart by The Haints. Now this is a very twangy album and labeled on Rhapsody as Alt-Country. When I went to look up their website, I couldn’t find one but did discover that The Haints were a therapeutic side project for the band The Groove Ghoulies (a Sacremento Pop-punk band) after the break-up of the band. One review on Amazon says that about half of the songs are old Groove Ghoulies songs reworked in an Alt-Country Style. Anyway the album was pretty good. I enjoyed a lot of the songs including the title track, “Hair of Gold (Skin of Blue), and “Algebra Song”. The album may stay on the player for a while for a few more listens.
When I went to write the review I did find another band with almost the same 
name. The band is The Haints Old Time String Band and their 2009 release Shout Monah . They are a three piece “Old Time String Band” from Canada and I am listening to the album as I am writing and enjoying some fine fiddling from band member Erynn Marshall, who in 2008 won the fiddle contest at the Clifftop festival in West Virginia, the first female and the first person from outside the United States to do so. From their website:
The Haints are an old-time band that started performing together in 2007 and have played festivals, concerts and camps since. Members of the band are: Erynn Marshall (Galax, VA / Victoria, BC) – fiddle, vocals, banjo-uke, Pharis Romero (Cobble Hill, BC / Horsefly, BC) – lead vocals, guitar and Jason Romero (Cobble Hill, BC / Arcata, CA) – banjo, guitar, lead vocals, banjo-uke.
The album is really good and will get put on the player for some extended listening. From what I heard there are some fine instrumentals on this one! On their website it says that “haint” is a southern expression for a spirit or ghost. Which explains why the Groove Ghoulies chose the name!!
The other two albums were The Steeldrivers new album Reckless which is currently number 11 on the Americana Music Chart and Neptune’s Car and their album Strawberry Moon which was number 4 on the Folk DJ Chart in September and the song “Lighthouse Keeper” from that album was number 1! More about both of those albums later in the week!
Here are The Haints Old Time String Band with “Milwaukee Blues” Sometimes you find good music in strange ways!!