A
1 THE CHURCH BELLS’ TONE
Is a bit of a collage of old american song lyrics. Contains lines previously used by Victoria Spivey, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Howlin’ Wolf and Roebuck ”Pops” Staples.

Bror Gunnar Jansson vocals, guitars, drums, saxophone, zurna

2 MOAN SNAKE MOAN Pt. 1 - RATTLESNAKE
As I often say when I’m about to perform this song live: ”Here’s a song about snakes and Hoodoo spells”. A song inspired by Clifton Chenier’s ’Black Snake Blues’. There’s a sequel to this song called ’Moan Snake Moan Pt. 2 - Black Snake’ to be found together with another version of Pt. 1 and two other songs on an 8” vinyl EP from Stencil Trash Records.

Bror Gunnar Jansson vocals, guitar, drums, hand clap - Emanuel Svensson & Christoffer Johansson percussion & hand clap

3 WILLIAM IS BACK
William Joseph Dean is a character a often come back to. In this song, he just returned from the dead, trying to bring hell to earth. William’s mother was a crazy, god fearing, fanatic christian named Mary Lee (which is also the title of a song I’ve written about her). She is one of the reasons for Billy becoming so evil. At some time during his youth he met a girl named Polly, and they travelled the roads together for a while, until Billy murdered her. His first kill. One can hear about this in (my version of) Pretty Polly (a traditional song). Now, a vicious spiral was set and William did whatever evil stuff he pleased. Finally a group of people found enough courage to form a mob to get rid of Billy. Of that you can hear in the song William Joseph Dean. They caught William and hung him in a great white oak tree. You can hear about Billy’s final ours in life, and the passing over to death, in Mean Old Billy’s Cry For Freedom. All of these songs have been recorded and are released on my first ”real” one-man-band-album ’S/T’ (BGJ001/TGR007) from 2012. Except for Mean Old Billy’s Cry For Freedom which has been recorded with the band ”Det Blev Handgemäng” and released 2009 on their first demo/EP.

Bror Gunnar Jansson vocals, guitar, banjo, drums, percussion Emanuel Svensson drums - Kristin Nordén pump organ - Max Lindahl trumpet - Emma Augustsson cello - David Edefors bass tuba

4 ONE FOR EARTH
An hommage to the Seattle-based band Earth. Listen to ’Omens And Portents II: Carrion Crow’ from 2008.

Bror Gunnar Jansson guitar, drums, saxophone, cage

5 HE HAD A KNIFE IN HIS HAND
Takes place during one of William Dean’s kills - from the victims point of view! Although, the song also has a reference in both Howlin’ Wolf and Nick Cave.

Bror Gunnar Jansson vocals, guitars, drums, percussion - Emanuel Svensson & Christoffer Johansson percussion

B
1 NEW MOUNTAIN BALLAD No. 1
The oldest original on this record. Written in 2009, all other original songs on this album were composed in 2012.

Bror Gunnar Jansson vocals, acoustic & electric guitar - Emma Augustsson cello

2 TV
A little Willis Earl Beal-inspired song about staying up all night, watching bad television programmes.

Bror Gunnar Jansson vocals, whistling, drums, cage, hand clap

3 AIN’T NO GRAVE (Brother Claude Ely)
For a long time I thought that this song was a traditional one. But in fact it was penned by Brother Claude Ely, although it has some similarities with other traditional songs such as ’In My Time Of Dying/Jesus Is Gonna Make Up My Dying Bed/Jesus Is A Dying Bed Maker’ and ’Oh Death/Death, Have Mercy’ - one of the reasons that I thought it was traditional. Another reason for this are the numerous recorded versions of this song. These are my favorite versions: Brother Claude Ely’s recording (from the 1950s), of course, Johnny Cash’s version recorded in 2003 (and released 2010), and my all-time favorite: the version of Bozie Sturdivant and congregational response, recorded in Silent Grove Baptist Church, Clarksdale, Mississippi, 1942. Yes, Bozie actually recorded it some years before Ely did.

Bror Gunnar Jansson vocals, electric & acoustic guitar, baritone guitar, tenor saxophone, drums, sticks, cage & chains

4 BUTCH
In which a new character, Butch, is being introduced. Like his namesake, from the Tarrantino cult-movie ’Pulp Fiction’, Butch is a semi-professional boxer who has grown tired of his current situation. Although ”my” Butch is an illegal immigrant from Cuba (Butch isn’t his real name), living in USA. And I think that you can also sense in the sang that he has somewhat of a dark past. I reckon that there will be more songs about him in the future.

Bror Gunnar Jansson vocals, guitar, baritone guitar, drums, percussion - Emanuel Svensson drums & percussion

GOD HAVE MERCY
Bror Gunnar Jansson vocals, guitar & drums - Kristin Nordén organ - Emanuel Svensson drums


”Ain’t No Grave” by Brother Claude Ely.
All other songs by Bror Gunnar Jansson.
Recorded, mixed & mastered by Christoffer Johansson.
Produced by Christoffer Johansson & Bror Gunnar Jansson.
Sound advise from Johan Hjalmarsson.
Illustrations by Feni. Cover design by Anton Andersson. Photo by Johan Lund.

2014
Normandeep Blues Records