Jeff Beck once said of the Legendary Shack Shakers that they were “a cross between the Yard Birds and the Sex Pistols”, which sounds just about right. Legendary Shack Shakers have always channeled the energy and rawness of punk into their rockabilly and psychobilly drenched music. It’s an irresistible mixture. On their latest album, After You’ve Gone releasing August 25th via Last Chance Records, the band ratchets up the lo-fi elements while exploring the aftermath and pain of marital breakdown and divorce.
Frontman JD Wilkes, who is also a noted author with deep literary flair in the Southern gothic tradition, endured a painful divorce and the album’s title song confronts that head on. “And I haven’t got no baby / I’m going crazy / After you’ve gone” puts it in notably direct terms that anyone who has ever suffered through a broken relationship can relate to. Wilkes says the song “describes the melancholy doldrums that set in after a break-up or divorce…the soul-crushing boredom and loneliness that I’m sure we can all relate to. If you can’t relate, then I’m not sure if I can trust you as a person.”