Caney Creek has released a new single, the title track from their upcoming CD, The Tale of Willie Tackett. It’s a new song about an old story in the venerable ‘killin’ song’ tradition.
Written and sung by guitar player Chris Smith, it tells a haunting tale of a double murder inspired by passion.
“I wrote the song a few years ago based on a true story. My father in law, Pearl Hamilton, had told me a story one time about a cousin of his that murdered a relative over a woman. On the afternoon of September 16, 1928, Henry Willie Tackett killed his cousin, Bob Jones, on Frasure Creek in Floyd County, Kentucky. That area of Kentucky was full of Hamiltons, Tuttles, and Tacketts.
I had wanted to write a Stanley-style murder mountain ballad, and this was the perfect story to fit it.”
In addition to Chris on guitar, Caney Creek is Mitch Meadors on mandolin, Stacy Wilcox on banjo, and Joe Robinson on bass.
The Tale of Willie Tackett is available to radio programmers today at AirPlay Direct. It will be offered to consumers through all the popular download and streaming sites starting on March 11.
