THE PINE HILL HAINTS
Not many bands can claim that they were formed in a cemetery. But it was a perfect and appropriately poetic setting for the birth of roots music trailblazers The Pine Hill Haints. Just to address the obvious, the word “haint,” of archaic English origin, means to haunt or to inhabit aggressively. And with a medium-like connection, The Haints have spent the last two decades resurrecting all kinds of music that has passed out of the mainstream – in a style they call “Alabama Ghost Country.”
“In some ways, we preceded the whole roots movement,” he continues. “But in other ways, nobody preceded anything. I guess where we were coming from has a lot more teeth for me than what’s happening now. People are almost afraid to say they love country without trying to up the rock side. But I think about the Carter Family just playing “You Are My Sunshine.” The purity and emotion of that. It’s almost like the hardest angle to find in country music today, so we wanted to really go there.”
