Highbrow Hick Coalition

I have joined forces with the Highbrow Hick Coalition. A great storytelling group found on Myspace. They will be sharing a story with us here at Punks Pickers and Outlaws on a bi-weekly basis. Here is the first of what I hope is many fantastic stories to come.



Wish I'd Known He Died, I Woulda Stood Up and Said

We are here today to say goodbye to our brother Thomas Diggs. Despite what the preacher mighta said, Thomas was not a good man, or a family man, but he was most certainly a drunk man. Didn't matter to Thomas if it was daybreak or quittin' time, Natural Light was a beverage to be appreciated at any hour. And fuck combin' your hair or puttin' on a clean shirt, weren't no cause for it since you were just gonna drop cigarettes on it later. I hate it that they put him in a suit and slicked his hair over. He looks goofy.
Hey! Ya'll 'member that time that old Thomas got so shit faced that Aunt Carolyn, cold-hearted bitch that she was, took his keys away from him and told him to bed down on the couch across from my mama? My sister said once Thomas laid down, they didn't get no sleep, cause he kep' hollerin', "Alene! Alene! Wake up! Are you my friend? If you're my friend, you'll wake up and let me make sweet love to ya. I just wanna be your friend." Mama told him to fuck hisself, but he did not give up, because Thomas Diggs was certainly a pathetic man.
Didn't matter though. We loved that dumb sloppy sumbitch, cause he was there that time we caught those police fuckin' on the hood of that police cruiser down in the gravel pits, and he threw empty beer cans at their flabby asses. And he was there when I turned sixteen to help me drink the two cases of beer he bought me as a present, and he helped me set that Christmas tree on fire and roll it down Hall Hill despite the fact that he was so drunk that he pissed his pants in the backseat of Bubba's T-Top Mustang, and he couldn't walk quite upright no more. And when Bubba shot that big ass raccoon and threw it in the back of his Jeep with me and Thomas without verifying the raccoon's untimely demise, Thomas beat it to death with a tire iron when it tried to get feisty with me. Then, he tucked that coon tail under his cap while we drank Wild Irish Rose around the campfire.

Them was good times. And Thomas Diggs was a bad motherfucker.

Rebel s. Nerd

Rebel s. Nerd's bio
A longtime story teller of epic proportions. After years of folks pokin' & proddin', Rebel Star decided she best start writin' all this shit down. Plans to be a future jeopardy champion.

The Pine Box Boys

This is an interview I recently did for One-Eighty magazine in Knoxville, Tenn. Here's how it went.


The Pine Box Boys

So it’s the Halloween season- a time to pull out the Jason films, throw eggs at the trick-or-treaters, and crack out The Pine Box Boys.

Since 2005’s release of Arkansas Killing Time these boys have been spinning tales of horror from the darkest parts of the holler.

Lester Raw, vocalist and guitar player, and Possum Carvidi, banjo player, were kind enough to take the time to answer a few questions for me.


1) How did the Pine Box Boys form?

The other boys found Lester drunk and face down around William Faulkner's grave in Oxford, Mississippi. When they rolled him over he was singing a song - mostly indecipherable since he had a mouth full of soil and gravel, but they distinctly heard the words "Stab twice!"

After a few cups of coffee, they managed to get him to show them a few of his songs: they were all about murder. The boys convinced Lester to move to San Francisco and the rest is history.

2) How would you describe your music?

Bloodgrass.

3) What bands are you listening to now?

Lester has been listening to Charles Ives a lot lately. Possum listens to Doom Metal and Underground Hip Hop. As a group, we listen to our friends: Good Luck Thrift Store Outfit, .357 String Band, Pawnshop Lifters, Kemo Sabe and so on. We also listen to CDs given to us by bands we meet on the road. It's a great way to pass the time on long drives. If we like the band, the CD travels with us and we tell everyone we know to listen to them. If we don't like the band, we throw the CD out the window.

4) You just played a show with Joe Buck and .357 String Band. How was that?!!!

We've played with Joe a few times- he's a really great guy. He looks like Skeletor, but he's really down to earth.

.357 and The Pine Box Boys have crossed paths a few times, but we've never had the opportunity to share a bill together. This was a pleasure for both bands. Back at the hotel, Lester and Billy (.357's mando picker) bothered the other guests by picking late into the evening.

5) What other bands would you like to do a show with?

The Pine Hill Haints. It just seems like a natural fit.

6) What's new for the Pine Box Boys? Touring? Recording?

The Pine Box Boys are working on their fourth album, "Revenge of The Emancipated Head." This is the story of a recently-decapitated head rolling through town and describing what it sees in song, sort-of post-mortem consciousness. The album will be released in June with a tour to follow.

7) What are you guys doing when you’re not playing music?

Lester bets way too much money on football. Also, he's been working on a string quartet. Uncle Dodds volunteers for various charitable foundations. Col. Leather is preparing a great big book about why the Apollo missions never really happened. Possum Carvidi spends most of his time learning to play musical instruments that everyone else makes fun of. Possum is also studying Russian authors; he hasn't bought any of the actual books, but he spends a lot of time with Spark Notes.

8) Hacksaw or Woodchipper??

There is no general agreement on this question: Possum prefers the efficiency of the woodchipper, but Lester argues that it is not nearly personal enough. Dodds and Leather advocate for the use of a lime digester.

I’ll have to agree with Lester myself, but in a pinch……..
Check them out on the web at www.pineboxboys.com