At a first sight, The Hooten Hallers appear to be a blues trio with hillbilly scents and soul colors. As with many other things, the unknowable aspects of the vast cosmo deceive us with this superfluous image. The Hooten Hallers are more akin to a lost group of aliens traveling back in time from places unknown to Humanity. Some say they come from a planet where rock’n’roll is not dead, where the blues still touch the soul. Others say they are masked humanoid reptiles from deep in the Earth. One fact is true: you need to witness its incendiary shows or expose yourself to its raw and wild recordings to know for sure what The Hooten Hallers are.

Formed at Columbia in 2006, they started playing open microphone sessions and home parties until they took over their own venue. John Randall plays the guitar more like a gunslinger than a musician, and his voice can be described somewhere in between John Lee Hooker and a howler monkey. Andy Rehm, with his genuine style of playing the drums on his feet, often resembles a man trying to beat a two-headed wolf, while at the same time trying to channel the ghost of Minnie Ripperton when he is thoroughly employed in the choirs. As a wandering musical alchemist, Kellie Everett (bass and sax) completes the trio, giving it all the strength and packaging of a true wind section.

The Hooten Hallers (1)