Phil Shoenfelt - Backwoods Crucifixion

Tracks

 1. Garden Of Eden
2. Marianne, I'm Falling
3. The Light That Surrounds You
4. Psyche
5. Devil's Hole
6. Hateful Heart
7. Walkaway
8. Salvation Hotel

musicians

Phil Shoenfelt	vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar
Phil Ames	bass guitar
Marcia Schofield	keyboards

review

"After hearing 'Backwoods Crucifixion', Phil Shoenfelt's debut LP on Paperhouse Records, you might expect him to arrive with tumbleweed trailing at his worn-out cowboy boots, needles hanging out of his veins, contemplating suicide and generally out-Caving Nick Cave.

In fact, he seems an affable enough chap. So how far do the dark obsessions on the LP - an amalgam of American gothic (Edgar Allan Poe, Faulkner, Night Of The Hunter) and the dark, existential angst (Jacques Brel, Nico, Scott Walker) matter? And how much of this subject matter - addiction, death, etc - is taken from his own life?

'It's based on the time I spent in New York. It was a harrowing time. I knew people there who overdosed ... friends, lovers, and the album is like an exorcism of that time.'

Phil visited New York ostensibly for a week, fell in love with a topless go-go dancer and ended up staying for two years. He joined a band called Khmer Rouge and gigged clubs like CBGBs before returning to the UK.

Phil then played with the Adult Net for a bit, releasing a solo single on Cog Sinister before going on tour with labelmates The Walkingseeds. He supported Nick Cave on his UK dates, and it is perhaps with Cave that the closest comparison can be made. But there's also a sort of psychedelic edge to his songs.