(antiMusic) Welcome to Singled Out! where we ask artists to tell us the inside story of their latest single. Today Bill Leverty of Firehouse fame tells us about "Boll Weevil" from his brand new solo album "Deep South". We now turn it over to Bill for the story:I decided to do an album of cover tunes, but I didn't want to do cover songs from an era that was a direct influence to me. I wanted to dig DEEP. I wanted to go back to where rock and roll got IT'S roots. Where artists who influenced people like Elvis were influenced. In other words, I wanted to go back BEFORE rock and roll happened and learn where it all came from. I found that much of this music originated in the Southern United States from the genres of blues, country, bluegrass and gospel.
I was really interested in making contemporary recordings of some of the old bluegrass, mountain songs; and in looking through literally hundreds of songs, I stumbled on a really cool one called "Boll Weevil".
I hadn't heard anyone cover "Boll Weevil" before, but I'm sure MANY people have. It's a song about an insect that caused a lot of people a LOT of problems. Today, even though the boll weevil has been virtually eradicated, we have many other "boll weevils" to deal with in life. That is how this song still seems relevant to me.
I really liked the fact that the song is in a minor key and I could rock it up a bit. With the production, I tried to keep the essence of the song while still adding big rhythm guitars, a lot of soloing, and a vocal sound in the verses that was more contemporary. The drum kit is tight and dry like the rest of the album, but I added some extra percussion that helped lift the energy of the track in the verses.
I added an ending to the song to try to convey the heavy emotion that these families must have felt when their entire farm was destroyed by this little bug. I think the end result is a very interesting piece of music that was written over 100 years ago. Now, to me, THAT'S cool!!...
Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself and learn more about the album - right here!
