Gothic Blues is the genre label chosen by the artist himself as a short answer to those curious to know what his music sounds like. His slightly longer, less brand orientated explanation is more factual: "I play 12 string slide guitar in an open tuning while stomping my feet on the floor".
Ledfoot is a pseudonym for Tim Scott McConnell who was born in Florida in 1958. He was first inspired to pick up his guitar by Johnny Cash and served an apprenticeship singing and strumming in biker bars and underground clubs.
He has played with The Rockats and The Havalinas but his loner personality means that a solo career seems to suit him best. After the break up of his last band he navigated to the somewhat incongruous setting of Norway where is outsider status is even more pronounced.
As a heavily tattooed man in black with bleached blonde hair he looks like a close cousin of Spike from Buffy The Vampire Slayer and is proud to report that he has stepped over to the dark side.
His life path now takes him down Purgatory Road ("life's a bitch") as previous album titles like Damned and The Devil's Songbook make plain.
His relish in this transgressive twilight existence is evident in his 'don't try this at home' song guide to How You Lose Your Innocence.
His deadpan Michael Gira style growl is bathed in cynicism; another good example is on the prison blues of The Cold Light Of Day: "I was born up in trouble and I grew up unchanged"
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Save My Ass confirms his loss of faith in Jesus without even the consolation of a Faustian Robert Johnson deal : "So I went down to the crossroads but the devil he just laughed".
If there's a hell below that's where he's headed but this doesn't make him inclined to compromise or look for silver linings. On Diggin My Own Grave he sneers: "I'm born to lose. No hope. No use. Still I got work to do".
"Will I find my peace in the final hour?" he asks rhetorically on The Sound Of The Sun Goin Down and on the evidence of these tracks you'd have to answer in the negative.
There's a grim beauty in these thirteen tracks of raw blues but you are still likely to feel like you've been trapped in a windowless room for an hour and you emerge from the experience blinking in the light with some relief.
Ledfoot's Website
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