Well, this is a total and utter joy and what a great honour for Americana UK to premiere Simon Flory’s version of the great Roky Erickson’s ‘Don’t Shake Me Lucifer‘. Could the classic garage rock song be amenable to a bluegrassing? Damn tooting right it is.
Simon Flory was born in rural Indiana, but his music took him first to Austin and then to Fort Worth. His playing evokes a clustered around the microphone classic sound, evoking forgotten radio voices with a stew of early country, gospel, and the best of classic Nashville. Even his guitar playing captures the rhythmic tumble of clawhammer banjo and Appalachian fiddle (on both of which he’s adept).
Simon Flory told Americana UK: “this is a bluegrass-tinged cover of a Roky Erickson song. Roky’s music and life have had a huge influence on me as a writer and I think he belongs in the conversation when we talk about great Texas Songwriters like Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark (Roky played with both in Texas early on). Like all great songs, it’s not the interpretation or style that makes the tune-it’s the story and the writing. Don’t Shake Me Lucifer is set in a world where there’s “no calm privacy,” folks are being “frisked up” left and right, and the “whole world is shaking to bits.” In other words, it’s a song of our time. It’s a song for any time of upheaval-of which we are in a constant state in Texas-through legislative action to curb the rights of working-class people, immigrants, children, and women. Roky’s well-documented life-long struggles don’t belie his credibility as a songwriter, his persistence inspired me to include this song.”
‘Don’t Shake Me Lucifer’ is taken from the new EP ‘Young Giants’.
