Picture one of those college bars, filled with young girls drinking $3 drafts and hanging on frat boys. In the corner, an ordinary-looking guy in a cowboy hat quietly tunes up his guitar in the corner. Cool! Live music, right? Finally he steps up to the microphone, and the crowd hushes. “Thanks for coming out tonight,” he says. He follows it up with “This one’s a little ditty called, ‘I’ve got a shotgun in my mouth.’” At that moment, the most ungodly racket spews from that Fender Stratocaster, and he begins kicking a bass drum at the same time, wailing out gloomy yarns like the hellspawn of Nick Cave and Johnny Cash. All the rich kids run for the door, spilling their drinks on each other in haste to find some pseudo Irish pub or sports bar and resume normalcy.

HAUNTED GEORGE (AKA George Pallow) may have the honor of being the most enjoyable or most offensive one-man-band in the country. “Bone Hauler” is 15 tracks of highly entertaining, noisy garage campfire stories. The title track is perhaps the standout, featuring oodles of hypnotic guitar drones and some jaunty solo action. “The Ghoul from the Mine” is a tale of a guy that marries a witch and murders her, hexing himself for all eternity. You’ll want to play that one for all the kids and grandpa, too. Plus, George proves that he can bury Warren Zevon at wolfman howls in the track called...um, “Howling”. But best of all, “What Kinda Tracks are These” is the perfect candidate for an official Peacedogman theme song, if we ever elect to have one. Bottom line: very impressive.

- Marchman

OFFICIAL SITE: myspace.com/hauntedgeorge

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