Flowers
from the album "A farmer's Prayer"

Outa Utah, Hillbilly VooDoo’s extraordinary music is drawn from a deep, deep well. Their narratives go back through the days of outlaws on horseback to prayers from mothers begging for their sons’ return from war and farmers pleading for rain to nourish their crops; prayers whose very timelessness brings Hillbilly VooDoo’s muse slap-bang up to date.

Formed when Lance and Tamlyn Weaver met in 1993, Hillbilly VooDoo marks the real meant-to-be coming together of a very singular voice and a musician who instinctively knows how to complement that voice’s message. Sometimes, as on Blown Away Blow, Tamlyn sounds like Kate Bush in coveralls or – check out her storytelling relish on Hats Off (to the Pleasant Valley Coal) – like a hay-chewin', thigh-slappin' Mae West. Mostly, though, Tamlyn just sounds like herself, a singer who can evoke the impassioned, disturbed spirit of an early settler straight off the Mayflower or sound perfectly content living in a rural idyll.

The music is crafted and recorded in the Weavers' house, set in the heart of Carbon County with views from the porch of dramatic cliffs, and walls two feet thick. This is the workshop where locomotive-rhythmed guitars, flailed banjo, pumping accordion, poetic dobro, loping bass, slashing drums and cymbals and close harmonies are fitted to the songs that the outsider duo write, sometimes alone but often together.

It’s from here that they set out, car full of instruments, for the festivals – bluegrass, old-time, cowboy and arts - and house concert circuit – that sustain them. Their music had to take a back seat from 2001 until recently due to their youngest child suffering from a life-threatening illness. But now that she’s healthy again, the Weavers are back, sharing their honest tales fuelled by infectious grooves. Their 2007 album, A FARMER'S PRAYER, is only the start. They’re currently preparing a new collection for release later this year and will undertake their first UK tour in 2011. Have a listen and watch the hairs on your arms start to bristle.