P. W. Long

Preston Wright Long is the lead singer and guitar player for the bands Wig, Mule and Reelfoot (also known as P.W. Long's Reelfoot). Purported to be the brother of the frontman of The Laughing Hyenas but this is untrue.

Long, who is very close with his personal details appears to have been reared in the Ypsilanti area (see Mule's "Obion," and its reference to an "Ypsilanti Man"). He eventually wound up in Detroit.

His earliest work was with the band Wig, and it is his voice that you hear on the "Lying Next to You" record. Sometime in the early 1990s, Long began a side project with the Laughing Hyenas' rythmn section, Kevin Munro and Jim Kimball. They put together a concoction of field hollers, backwoods legends, hellbilly canon and mixed it with a semi-punk, semi-metallic musical assault that was best described as northern redneck, but intelligent, clamor.

Calling themselves Mule, they released a musical single in 1991 or 1992 containing the song "Tennessee Hustler". Their first self-titled album, produced by Leonard John (purported to be Nirvana producer Steve Albini), debuted shortly thereafter.

While it had the raucousness of the Hyenas, and certain punk and alternative sensibilities, Mule was quite different. The album opened with P.W. shouting "We left town to the sound of buckshot rain" on "Mississippi Breaks".

As P.W. himself later admitted, he didn't really know how play to guitar when he started with Mule, or at least not all that "slickly" to use his word. Instead, he used a variety of open tunings and such, coupled with a just a simple feel for what was right, to create his sound. Never bounded by the need for classic guitar solos, P.W. still put the guitar at the forefront with innovative melody lines and breaks.

The self titled album continued on with "I'm Hell", the rawking "What Every White Nigger Knows", the eerie "Drown", the trip into Old NorthWest Folk Music with "Now I Truly Understand", the duet with Kevin on "Mama's Reason to Cry", "Lucky" and "Sugarcane Zuzu" with its admonition from Pbone's grandpappy that "You can wish in one hand, and shit in the other, and see which one fills up first."

Mule's first album ended up on Spin's "Ten Best Albums of 1993 You Didn't Hear" list and prompted endless touring by the band. New songs were always in progress, with P.W. sometimes simply humming or yoodling the lyrics during live performances over the new music but before lyrics were complete.

Mule followed up their debut album with the EPs "Wrung" and the album "If I Don't Six" in 1994. Both are mid 90s punkabilly/country metal standards, with "Wrung" in particular fitting the definition of hard to define. The song/story of "Searchlight" is evil, mean and foreboding. The down and dirty call and response duet by P.W. and Kevin on "Rope and the Cuckold" is another highlight. "If I Don't Six" went in a slightly different direction, with some piano, a bit more soul but just as much ass whuppin'. In particular, Obion, Nowhere's Back, and Pent are songs of raw power, loneliness, depression and yet beautiful soulfulness.

Long left the band in 1996, after their relocation to Philadelphia.

Long then formed the band "Reelfoot" with bassist Dan Maister, and Mac McNeilly, drummer with The Jesus Lizard, releasing the albums "We Didn't See You on Sunday" and "Push Me Again" in 1997 and 1998 respectively. After this, Long went on a musical hiatus, broken by occasional gigs. During this time he directed the music video for the song "You're the Reason" by Hank Williams III. Long also started writing, contributing CD reviews to magazines and being the New York nightclub and restaurant critic for London's "Crush Guide" magazine.

In 2002, the band Shellac, who were curating the All Tomorrow's Parties music festival in Rye, asked Long to appear, and he shared the stage with bands such as Wire and The Fall. After this, Long released his first solo album, "Remembered", in 2003.

P.W. Long currently lives in Texas. He has worked as a contributor to the now-defunct weekly "New York Sports Express". His latest solo album, on vinyl only, is God Bless the Drunkard's Dog with the song Let'em Roll showing up in a recent Iraq war documentary film.

Mr. Long would also remind you that he is neither an economist, nor a historian.

Discography

As Mule:

*1992 - "I'm Hell"/"To Love Somebody" - 7"
*1993 - "Mule" - LP
*1994 - "Wrung" - EP
*1994 - "If I Don't Six" - LP
*1997 - "Soul Sound" - a split 7" w/ Shellac

As Reelfoot:

*1997 - "We Didn't See You on Sunday" - LP
*1998 - "Push Me Again" - LP

As Young James Long:

* 2007 "You Ain't Know The Man" - EP

Solo work:

*2003 - "Remembered" - LP
*2007 - "God Bless The Drunkard's Dog" - LP

External links

* [http://www.southern.com/southern/band/PWLON/disc.php PW Long Discography]
* [http://www.tgrec.com/bands/album.php?id=418 Touch and Go Records 25th Anniversary footage of PW Long performance and interview]