Various Artists
F.T.W. – A Tribute to Gideon Smith
Scorpius Triangle Records

F.T.W. is an improbable, yet not unworthy, tribute album for underground Southern rock icon (I guess I can use that term now, right?) Gideon Smith. It seems as though Gid’s inspirational sage and hustle has influenced a whole bunch of Dixie Damned disciples and they’ve gathered to growl and howl their way through some of Gid’s finest songs, paying homage to a man whose bearded prowess is as potent as the music he makes. Now, I haven’t the foggiest clue who any of the bands on this compilation are or what swamps and caves they crawled out of — we’re dealing with some serious subterranean subjugation here — but judging by the 16 interpretations on display, Gid’s cosmic biker boogie lends itself to all sorts of twisted variations, like death metal, doom, rockabilly, and even some reggae. It’s all about the deep and dark for me, though, because Gid’s music has always pushed the heavy, ghostly, psych-rock boundaries, so the contributions from Ossastorium (“Ghost Rider”), Tremble Saith Thy Master (“My Darling Black Rose”), Dear Druid (“Lay Me Down in Ecstasy”), Trocarion Fate (“The Witch’s House”), Witch Bone Ash (“Blood and Fire”), and Dannros Systems of Romance (“Dionysus Child”) are the obvious stand-outs. Biggest disappointments, however, go to Red All Over and Bill Carroll for mistreating two of my favourite Gideon Smith songs, “Draggin’ the River” and “Outerspace Girl,” respectively, and the fact that no one covered “Shimmering Rain” and “Blacklight Wizard Poster” is a real bummer. Anyway, good on Gideon for this benchmark and, as always, in keeping with his outlaw spirit, Fuck The World, Forever Two Wheels, and Fight To Win.

Listen to “Dionysus Child” by Dannros Systems of Romance from F.T.W.!

“Merlin wasn’t real.”
“Fuck you Merlin wasn’t real.”
“It’s a story.”
“Merlin was part of King Henry’s court and he fucking won all the wars for him ’cause he cast spells. Fuck you, man. That shit’s real.”
“He was part of King Arthur, not King Henry…”
“Yeah, it’s a fable. A fable is history.”

Ah, FUBAR. Amazing. But you know something? Deaner got it absolutely right. A fable is history. The divide between truth and fiction has long since vanished and wizards walk — or, rather, rock — amongst us. I know. So what you’re about to read, everything I’m about to tell you of the outlaw Gideon Smith and his court of motorcycle madmen, The Dixie Damned, may sound like pure cowboy fantasy, a Southern-fried fairy tale full of tumbleweed, rattlers, whiskey, blood, dust, ghosts, and backwoods psychedelia, but it’s simply this: the narcotic we desire most.

Gideon, the Charlotte, North Carolina native, began life as a wizard when he apprenticed at the faithful and frenzied school of Destructo Maximus as a roadie while under the bloody-faced tutelage of Jeff Clayton and his band of wrestlin’ lovin’ murder junkies, ANTiSEEN. The years he spent in that chaotic foxhole, surrounded by barb wire and explosives, arm in arm with the Confederacy of Scum, would spark in him a desire to branch out on his own. So, in 1997, Gideon took that giant leap into outlaw territory with some former Animal Bag members, now dubbed The Dixie Damned.

Gideon Smith & The Dixie Damned spin a swampy brand of blues-infused doom rock, a heavy dose of Southern boogie n’ groove with a hairy chest and meat cleavers for hands. They mix the super-sized spirituality of The Cult with the chain gang riffs of Circus of Power and end up with a shamanistic brand of trippy, bad-ass, redneck biker rock. Gideon’s vocals might be some of the most recognizable in all of rock n’ roll, rolling out of his diaphragm like they’re coming up from the bottom of a well, where Elvis’ bloated carcass floats face down in bong water. The band released a self-titled EP some time after forming, but it wasn’t until 2004′s full-length, Southern Gentlemen, that word came down that there was a new wizard in town.

But, like a wizard is wont to do, Gideon vanished for a few years, appearing only on various tribute albums and compilations. He spent his years in exile dealing with death and cultivating is outlaw way of life, recording some spoken word/poetry stuff on such themes as paganism, the occult, the power of positive thinking, beauty, creativity, and strength, and writing his manifesto, Way of the Outlaw Spirit. Gideon Smith & The Dixie Damned returned to the fold with a six-song EP, Dealin’ Decks, and their second full-length in 2008, South Side of the Moon.

So, what’s Gideon up to now? How goes it in the world of this particular wizard, this rock n’ roll outlaw? What bearded mischief has he been up to? Well, I take council with the man himself, my brother in both wizardry and beard, and we discuss such epic matters as his new album, what it means to be an outlaw, what it means to be a wizard (and how we can’t actually discuss anything to do with wizardry because it’s all top secret), and, of course, beards. There’s even an uncomfortable moment when I mention something about a girl and some chains. This is the stuff you crave, my friend. This is the fable of truth.

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