On the first single from FREAKONS, “Blackleg Miner”, (listen below) Sally Timms doles out some rough justice. Taken from their forthcoming self-titled album, FREAKONS track a seam of gorgeous shiny black coal from Northumberland to South Wales and across under the cruel Atlantic to Kentucky. A 19th century English folk song from the Northumberlland region, the song is believed to originate from the miners’ lockout of 1844.The song is one of the most controversial English folk songs owing to its depiction of violence against strikebreakers. The message is loud and clear… Don’t cross that picket line! In the end, the lockout largely collapsed as a result of “blackleg” labour.
Mekons (beloved, mythical British rabble-rousing beast) and Freakwater (also beloved, yet often derided as godmothers of Alt-Country) have allied their sundry song & dance talents for the forces of good. Together they are FREAKONS. Oddly, Freakwater and Mekons were bound to each other at the start, by the rich seam of Anthracite coal running the width of the Atlantic Ocean from Wales to the Appalachian Mountains. The music and culture of mineral resource extraction, ecological disaster, and worker exploitation are their shared heritage. FREAKONS, the eponymously-titled album to be released March 25, 2022 (Fluff & Gravy Records), is the first fruit of this visionary musical union.
