POTBH on New Gothic Western Site
Phantom of the Black Hills have been featured on the new Gothic Western site GothicWestern.com, a new collective dedicated to all Gothic Western and Southern Gothic. Check out the write up, then peruse all the features, they have articles on music, movies & TV, fashion, art and lifestyle, all relating to everything Gothic Western. To visit the site and see the article click HERE.
“The mixture of goth and Western music has brooding and dark motifs interwoven into cowboy culture while incorporating themes of death, occult and superstition. Crossover elements are seen in gothic country, but are unique to experiences of the American frontier, including Northern Mexico. The music encompasses storytelling and the cultural diversity of instrumentation associated with the American frontier. The spaghetti western sound of Ennio Morricone is influential to the genre. Pioneers of the genre include Johnny Cash, Jim Morrison, and groups like Fields of Nephilim and Heathen Apostles. In recent years, the music of Colter Wall has helped revive this evolving music genre.
The post-war consciousness between 1940 and 1950 left consumers wanting less monster-related horror in favor of dark storytelling connected with reality. I.e., the monster, subject to relativism, survives in the shadows of the idealized American Dream. Westerns were at their peak of popularity, but with the increase of technology, modernization and social changes, not without artistic commentary. An amalgamation of the two genres befitting this reflection was imminent.
In 1971, Johnny Cash introduced the ‘Man in Black’, stating:
I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down, livin’ in the hopeless, hungry side of town, I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime, but is there because he’s a victim of the times.”
Larry Vincent, a horror host named Sinister Seymour, established Knott’s Halloween Haunt in 1973, one of the first Halloween related events on a large scale, blending gothic and Western aesthetics at Calico ghost town, and providing a first venue for the growing subculture.
