A studio with a past always seems to be a turn-on for musicians, and the Moaners — singer-guitarist Melissa Swingle and drummer Laura King — are no different. The duo recorded their follow-up to 2005’s Dark Snack in the Mississippi house that held Fat Possum’s famed former Money Shot studio (the new room is named Blackwings), where late blues artists R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough and Paul “Wine” Jones recorded.
The mysterious, from-the-gut, booze-filtered southern vibe of such a storied spot no doubt left its mark on these Jimbo Mathus-produced recordings, but those are qualities not unknown to Swingle’s previous work, which has revealed itself as unable of being from any other place but Dixie. Swingle, whose voice crawls through a song like a spider sliding through the remains of a dead beer, has been a detailer of the wonderfully weird, dark side of the south since her days fronting Trailer Bride.
With the more garage-rock-oriented Moaners, she has explored a higher-energy, fuzz-friendly sound. She and King continue that pursuit on the delightful and diverse Blackwing Yalobusha. There’s everything from the freaky, funky blaxploitation trip of “Foxy Brown” to Swingle’s twangy French on the delirious “French Song”. The raw grind of “I Think I Love You” is definitely Fat Possum-approved, while “Dreamin’ About Flyin'” is a Swingle-patented trippy good time. Also included is a documentary of the recording process filmed by Yep Roc co-founder Tor Hansen.