The devil loves a good strong toxic brew with most music genres having original ties to the conjuring chords of blues legends. The devil may have planted geographical seeds at the crossroads in Georgia, but Wisconsin has a few outstretched claws reaching downward too.
Metal may have the most assumed alliance with southern darkness but you don’t have to headbang and raise horns to sound dark, heavy and devilish.
The strong blues rock ceremony of Bourbon House has been unleashed leaving everything bloody scarlet with debut album Into the Red. It’s a strong, quadruple shot serving led by the alluring presence and lungs of Lacey Crowe and founding guitarist Jason Clark.
They’ve released several singles and videos, recently posting new video, “Dead in the Water” filmed at Paradise Springs in Eagle, Wisconsin. The clip uses horror movie visuals, hints of snuff, grindhouse elements, (non-Manson) creepy crawling and contortionism to create a dark backwoods stalker vibe. It’s supposed to be as creepy as it looks with just a hint of Last House on the Left, to make you think about it. Musically saying, no one can hear you scream out here. “Yeah, we were going for The Ring vibe or something, Crowe says.” Though, they couldn’t get a TV to crawl out of.
The video’s biggest surprise besides the hooded identity of the stalker is the limber, bewitching crawler, while resembling Crowe, isn’t her, though she’d make a great stunt double. “So many people think it’s me but it’s not.” It’s kind of supposed to be her. “She supposed to be ambiguous but it’s not me.” It took a blues rock band to use spider-walking in a video. “You’re welcome.”
Crowe has a few baptism-like shots in the water, slowly crawling out refreshed and reborn, though the murky appearance is deceiving. “Actually it’s purified natural spring water. It was the beginning of May in Wisconsin and the coldest water I’ve ever been in. So cold it burned. So cold it’s hot. I felt really great when I came out of it.”
Clark says they wanted a haunting video that visually spoke to the audience. They had a great videographer, Jocelyne Berumen making the dream happen and then some. “She came up with some concepts and had the whole location picked out. We trusted her on that one. That’s usually a good thing to do, she has good ideas.”
It’s arguably a very metal video done by a non-metal band, “It’s not really a blues rock song, we do mostly blues rock but do a little bit of everything,” Clark says. “We figured for a harder edged song like that, called for an edgier video.”
The walker, performer is a friend of a friend, “She’s a student in the town we live in. We wanted to find the most-bendy person we could,” Crowe says smiling.
The Tarlton Theatre in Green Bay was used for the vintage B&W shadow and shade of “I Got Trouble.” Burlesque and gangster club vibes were used to tell the story. “We were going for an old 1940’s style. You’d have the burlesque performer but also the band the same night and a magician maybe. Have a night out in the ‘40s, all fancy.” The scene where the woman blows smoke in her husband’s face for a suspect look at the dancer is Crowe’s favorite part.
She comes from a musical family with most members having the talent and touch. “My sisters not in a band though she’s a very good singer. She can sing anything. The last band she was in was a jazzy kinda thing. There’s a lot of country music going around my family too.” Crowe wasn’t trained, naturally developing god given talent.
The heavy stuff isn’t her thing though she has the pipes for it, never being upstaged by louder, heavier bands. Clark says, “We’ve played shows with almost every kind of band. I wouldn’t say every band’s heavier than us. Some are a bit punk rock, every kind of rock you can think of. We played shows with those kinda bands.”
They’ve also played with bands on the funkier side. “There’s definitely a lot of heavy bands that play the circuit. We end up on shows with a lot of them but it’s ok, it all fits. Usually metal fans are rock fans and vice versa,” Clark says. They never felt uncomfortable playing with heavier bands. “Crowds always seems into it. “
They’re officially on the High Road Tour with support from Dark Sun as many bands have gotten back into the live groove. “We’re covering 15 states I think,” Clark says. It’ll be a southern loop. They just played a warm up home show testing the waters.
They flavored their first self-titled EP with sounds of the swamp, adding a froggy cover. “Burn the Bones” is the opener with Clark’s riffage making a grand introduction about putting the past behind you. While “Yet we Run” is musically diverse and unique with uneasy and unnerving feelings in the music. You’re being musically chased in a nightmarish listening party. “That’s what we were going for, dark and uneasy,” Clark says.
Crowe can pull on older relationships for sure for lyrical power. ““Bad for Me” is more like I shouldn’t be into you but I am.”
She has a unique persona on camera and stage coming across very confident with a searing bad ass, back off gaze. “That comes with the territory and the more people try and keep you down. Build a tougher skin and be more confident.”
There’s no deal with the devil made yet, blues and all, but they did write a song about him. Wanting some slight hellish fun they conjured the video “Devil on My Heels,” complete with dancers. The title came first then they built the song around it. “That’s our first slide guitar song,” Clark says. “The whole thing went old school blues, the devil, the crossroads, that kinda thing.” It’s their first video, flavored with ‘70s techno second and color.
They won’t have time for covers on the road. Once the first note hits each show, it’s all originals, all the time. “We cover a ton of time doing all (originals). When we tour, you should be able to hear, everything on the record and some older stuff.” “Devil on My Heels” and “Dead in the Water” are definite nightly guarantees.
Crowe’s voice and talent have earned legendary, veteran comparisons. “A lot of people compare me too Janis Joplin, sometimes Ann Wilson, Grace Slick, Carly Simon, Sass Jordan.”
They started the musical bourbon in 2013,”Lacey and I started playing acoustic shows in 2014. We started rehearsing in 2013. We came up with the phrase Bourbon House not knowing there’s a famous restaurant named Bourbon House in New Orleans. We just wanted a name sounding blues rock. At the time we were an old school blues band, learning Muddy Waters and that kinda thing. We wanted something that reflected that.”
Their fanbase is global. “We have fans all over the world which is super cool. We’re picking them up one by one,” Clark says. Playing overseas is on the long-term check off list with Germany, and the UK as high spots. “We’ve played some smaller fests. We’re playing Rock Fest this year.” They’re playing Friday sharing air and atmosphere with Evanescence, Halestorm, The Pretty Reckless and other female-helmed hellraisers. “It’s the day I want to play,” Crowe insists
When it comes to cell phones they prefer seeing fans filming footage or taking band pics for social media promotion or personal memories than texting or Googling.
Though they acknowledge recording/bootlegging has gone back to the ‘60s. Some bands didn’t like it, some did. The Grateful Dead thought it was good advertising. “I think it’s good advertising when people post they were at a Bourbon House show,” Clark says. “Word of mouth is still the best advertisement,” Crowe adds.
Though they love a loud, active crowd rather than just standing and filming, they’re not fans of mosh pits as they want fans to pay attention to the show.
The pandemic was as hard on them as elsewhere. “We only took four months off from playing when Covid happened. We were back playing shows in June. Our last show was February 2020 then lockdown for three months. Right after, we played in June, then played once a month for the rest of the year,” Clark remembers.
Though he acknowledges different areas and cities handled things differently. “Some places didn’t close down at all and some felt like you were in some sort of police state and everything in between. Around here it was back and forth for a little while.” It was a matter and manner of mandates depending on the month.
The rest of 2022 looks safe and smooth with new songs to release, more videos and as much touring as they can. As long as things stay in their grasp and control they plan to keep delivering on stage and screen.
There will be plenty for the Bourbonites and truly hardcore, dedicated Bourbarians to consume with100 proof potency.
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