The Bailey Hounds

The XPoNential Music Festival coverage from Out of Town Films continues today with their video of The Bailey Hounds performing the song “Oh My Demons, How They Wander.” The Out of Town guys are quite adept at finding unusual locations for their shoots, and this one is no exception, with the gothic Americana band performing on the empty lawn of the Susquehanna Bank Center. Check out the video below.
- WXPN

This month’s Key Studio VIDEO Session features The Bailey Hounds, the Philadelphia-based gothic Americana band that released its first full-length record, Along the Gallows, last Halloween. In our interview, singer-guitarist Ryan Petrillo talks about his fascination with the horror genre, how he and his bandmates have learned to apply it to their songwriting process, and their camaraderie with the Philadelphia music scene. We also see The Bailey Hounds performing three original songs in our studio – “Those Devils Don’t Scare Me,” “Along The Gallows,” “Dead and Gone” – and a cover of Pantera’s “The Great Southern Trendkill.” Watch the video and download the session below, and catch The Bailey Hounds at the XPoNential Music Festival this Saturday; they play The Key Stage at the Susquehanna Bank Center at 8 p.m. - WXPN

Sometimes I love the internet. One day, thanks to some social networking subscriptions I came across a video of the Bailey Hounds doing a cover of Pantera’s “The Great Southern Trendkill“. I was immediately intrigued. The cover was performed acoustically, during a radio show, and the band did a phenomenal job. It really was like hearing the song all over again. With my newfound interest in the band, I began digging for more, and found a Philly-based band, who are truly committed to their art. If you are familiar with my previous posts you will know that I have little use for labels in regards to music, I use two, good and bad, so I will not attempt to classify these guys other than to say they are good. Their debut album, Along The Gallows can be streamed and purchased from their website thebaileyhounds.com, I recommend doing so. The album for me, has an instant rapport, it is instantly personal. While you listen to the tracks, they could have been written about your life. My favorites include “Devil Tree”, and ”Always on the Wrong Side”.

Recently I had the opportunity to “sit down” with Ryan Petrillo, vocalist/guitarist and songwriter for the band, and I asked him a few questions:

Dan Warden: Tell me about the band. Whatever you feel is important, but I’m leaning towards, when did you get together, how long have you been together, were some of you in other bands before etc.

Ryan Petrillo: What I can say about the genesis of The Bailey Hounds is that it was initially started by Gary and myself. I had recently left my friend’s band, Liam and Me, after being on tour with them for about two years. I wasn’t a part of the writing process, and I was itching to play my own music. When I ran out of money and couldn’t afford the touring life any longer, I hunted down a Philadelphia drummer and found Gary. He had played extensively in the Philly folk and bluegrass scene and once we met and started playing, that started things off. That was about three years ago. However, the band we have today has only really been around and performing regularly for about a year. With the upcoming year, we’ll be releasing new music, new covers, and playing outside the tri-state area pretty extensively. We’re in the midst of setting up a tour headed south for early April.

DW: Who were and are your influences?

RP: I think citing “influences” is a tremendously difficult thing to do because as music lovers and musicians, we are exposed to so many artists and genres; we really take a little from all of our interests, regardless of time periods & genres. I grew up hearing Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Bruce, & Zeppelin on my Pop’s record player, so I was always surrounded by that. As a teenager, I really only listened to metal & punk, and as I got older and broadened my horizons a significant amount, I really started becoming enamored with artists like Ryan Adams and Iron & Wine. I think each of us in the Hounds has our own Top 5, you could say, and we all bring a bit of that to the table—a mosaic of all the music we grew up on, whether that means Led Zeppelin, Grateful Dead, Hot Water Music, Tom Waits, or Pantera.

DW: I watched a YouTube video of you regarding the Dylan cover and heard you say you had been in Punk and Metal bands before. Why the change?

RP: The change wasn’t anything consciously done. I always wrote songs for myself, and at the point where my hardcore band could’ve gone one way or the other, I decided to move to Scotland to study Gothic literature. I suppose that really ended the era for me.

DW: If you could pick one album that changed your life, what would it be?

RP: It’s not an easy task to choose a single album that changed my life, but honestly, Pantera‘s The Great Southern Trendkill and Ryan Adams‘ Love is Hell both had a profound effect on me and how I approached music.

DW: Getting to Along the Gallows, what was the recording process like?


Along the Gallows

RP: We recorded at Racetrack Sound Studios in South Philly with Shane Moore & Lance Davis, who were a real team in the process. The studio was incidentally only blocks away from my apartment, so on summer days, I’d stroll over there with the scent of Termini‘s canolli and Pat’s Cheesteaks in the air and knock out vocals for a song or two. We only recorded on weekends and I think at times the process felt like a train pushin’ an old car down the tracks or something. We’d go weeks sometimes without hearing what we recorded and when we finally did…well, it was often just a relief that we were getting the sounds we wanted. The studio was a comfortable place for us and Shane & Lance sacrificed a lot of their time getting the right feeling and shades and dynamics out of the songs.

DW: After seeing/hearing your cover of The Great Southern Trendkill, I started digging into the band. You seem to have a decent amount of exposure, why the decision to self release the album?

RP: Ha, honestly, there was never another option besides a self-release. I don’t think it’s a decision we consciously made per se, but I think for our first album, it’s definitely something we all felt compelled to do. We put a lot into the album, even down to making the physical cases of the CDs ourselves. Every decision we made about the album was ours, and I’m not sure that would have been the case if we hadn’t released it independently.

DW: Is it difficult to book gigs in Philly with your sound?

RP: It isn’t. Many of our favorite bands we play with, like our buddies in Ruby the Hatchet, don’t sound anything like us, but I think there’s some inexplicable thing that makes us feel real comfortable playing shows together. We want to have fun, put on a good show, hang out with friends & fans, and enjoy what the bar has to offer. There’s actually a pretty thriving folk scene here in Philly, but for whatever reason, we haven’t been a part of it.

DW: Are there labels courting the band?

RP: Nope. There are no labels courting the band, but if there were, I don’t know if it’s something we’d be interested in. Being on a label doesn’t seem to have the same meaning as it did in another age. I read some comment that was posted after the Pantera video came out about how all these major labels were apparently courting the band and I was like, “Whoa! Awesome. Wait, no, no…that’s a lie.”

DW: Listening to the Album I find a common theme runs throughout. To me it seems like loss, death and the devil but even though dark themes abound I get the idea that this album is about love and life. A challenge to preconceived notions of love and happiness. Emphasizing the point that death and loss are necessary for life and love. Your thoughts?

RP: Writing for me is a very natural process and I think all of those themes make their way onto the album. I never really thought any of these songs would ever be recorded or played with a full band, so I can’t say that I ever had any intentions about what themes might run throughout the album; I just wrote what I felt I had to say at the particular moment the song was being written.

DW: You might not be able to answer, but what is your favorite song on the album? Or at least what was the most fun to record?

RP: Yeah, I don’t think I can say if I have a favorite. I like how “Along the Gallows” and “Devil Tree” came out. We had Mike “Slo-Mo” Brenner come play pedal-steel on “Along the Gallows” and it really completed the song for me; pedal-steel is my favorite instrument, and I always heard it somewhere in the song. “Devil Tree” was just a fun process because we got to experiment so much with sounds and textures; Vince used a bow on the second-half of the track and played some ambient stuff using a quarter on the strings. Actually, I consider the two songs sister-songs, and I think having them on the album was important to me. I’m pleased with how they turned out, though if you could hear the demo versions I recorded in my room however long ago, I think you’d be surprised with how far they’ve come and developed.

DW: Enlighten me to your songwriting process. As a songwriter myself I find talking to other songwriters that the process for each of us is a little different. With some songs I have written, I wrote the music first then the lyrics, I have almost never been able to write lyrics then add music, and for the songs that I consider my best, I did both at the same time. What works for you?

RP: I usually pick up my Pop’s ’76 Martin, and if something sounds good, I keep playing it. Eventually, I have a melody, and if I’m lucky, lyrics just start pouring out. After I have the skeleton of the song, I bring it to the guys and we play it till we’re sick.

DW: How did the Pantera cover come about? Just so you know I listen to it at least five or six times a week. I have always been a Pantera fan, and also a big fan of Down. Phil Anslemo writes some amazing songs. Listening to the original, you get the idea of the lyrics, but they are expressed through anger and aggression. Your cover puts a new spin on the idea. It becomes personal, for me it is easier to internalize pain and remorse than aggression. So thanks for helping me rediscover a great song.

RP: The Pantera cover was a very unconscious thing. I had been a Pantera fan since I could buy my own cassette tapes, and I always wanted to pay tribute to the band somehow. I had been playing this version of “Trendkill” in my room whenever I had downtime; “The Great Southern Trendkill” was always one of my favorite Pantera songs, and I eventually showed it to the other fellas in the band. They dug it, and we played it at shows a handful of times. The song—to me—always sounded like there was just dirt all over the place. Dirt in the amplifiers and grit in the crevices of the snare. Sand in the microphone and really just this impossible rawness. I remember vividly where I was the first time I heard it in 1996. I was only about thirteen then and I think my Mom was probably thinking, “Oh no…what just happened to my son?” When Spike Eskin of WYSP asked us to come on to play our Bob Dylan cover, I asked if we could do the Pantera cover instead —it seemed only appropriate, figuring it was a station prone to playing heavier music. I didn’t think the video would be seen by more than a few friends & fans, so when it started spreading and Pantera posted it on their Facebook page, it was pretty wild for me. I knew some people would be upset by the approach to the cover, but I was hoping that the majority of people would recognize that it was paying homage to a band steeped in dark southern roots. I got a kick out of some of the comments people were making, but hell, I never expected Pantera fans to even hear the cover, let alone call it anything but blasphemy. I was actually really overjoyed with the amount of positive feedback and really appreciative of all the people who understood where I was coming from.

Thanks to Ryan for taking the time to answer all my crazy questions, and at times be a gushing fan…. Again if you haven’t already check out The Bailey Hounds. - On the Couch Blog

The Bailey Hounds, formed in early 2009, released their first full-length album Along the Gallows on October 30th, also known as Devil’s Night or Hell Night. Finding solace and inspiration in their hometown of Philadelphia, a town with as much history as you can get out of America herself; their songs are influenced by the melancholy sounds of an early winter graveyard and the folksy blues from tired travelers.

Pennsylvania has an interesting history deep seeded in the founding of our country, the whiskey rebellion and the collapse of the steel industry. This bipolar depression has bread similar sounds from bands and hobbyist musicians alike in this region. Painted for us here is this Americana sort of gothic, downhearted and sometimes guttural compilation of songs. The Bailey Hounds have the power to evoke such images, memories and emotions of dilapidated, sunken graveyards, love gone wrong and the hand that Satan has played in our lives.

“Till Morning Comes” is a twisted song, wrapped around a 1950’s electric guitar sound, which seems to take on the lead throughout most of this song, giving it a slinky sinuous beat. The guitar, bass and drums configuration shares an easy going beach music vibe mixed in with Tim Burton tones.

There is a darkness on the edge of town. Its name is “Along the Gallows.” This song could have been on David Gray’s White Ladder LP, which isn’t surprising since Ryan’s smooth, sensual voice plays in your ear the same way David Gray’s does (if you’re a girl any way). It’s very soothing. The lyrics are deep and soulful, there is a darkness surrounding this LP; reflections of sadness maybe? More than just a sad tune, there is something final about this song.

Rocking out in a bluegrass, almost rock-a-billy harmony, “Oh My Demons, How They Wander” with one or more of the instruments taking its turn playing the melody and improvising around it, the song picks up the beat, throwing in the tambourine and yet still covers a dark story behind the raucous good time!

The Bailey Hounds are in good company, comparing them to Kalispell, Damien Rice, Woodshed Prophets and Damon Moon and the Whispering Drifters. With their assortment of folk style instruments, bass and electric guitar, organ, harmonica and melodic vocals; their sound has a certain scything guitar patterns, high and low-pitched baselines with beats that can be described as either hypnotically, dirge-like or downright Americana folk within a progressive rock genre. Clearly it is a complicated relationship, this compilation of genres which is what we have here. You can’t fairly classify this band or any other band under a single genre without also describing five or ten others! Our recommendation is to listen and hear for yourself why this is a must have album. I give this band 4 out of 5 stars.

An interview with The Bailey Hounds

KW: How did your band form? What was that experience like?

TBH: I had recently come off tour with my friend’s band Liam and Me in 2009. I was playing keyboards and guitar for them for a couple years before I started feeling like I wasn’t giving enough attention to my own music. I ran out of money, left the band and went on a hunt for a good drummer; I found Gary who was playing with Wissahickon Chicken Shack and various other folk/bluegrass groups.

I went to his house, we played “Always on the Wrong Side” together and ever since then we’ve been in a band. Vince was a friend of Gary’s and started showing up and after a couple years and a couple bassists I called on Chris who was an old high school buddy. The formation of the band with these members has been together for a little more than a year and I think we all feel that we’ve been moving forward in the right direction with our music and live performances since that year began.

KW: Did you come up with the genre “cemetery blues” or did someone else coin that for you?

TBH: Actually, the first time that genre came up was in the midst of an interview with Origivation Magazine. It was my first interview for The Bailey Hounds and when asked to describe our music “cemetery blues” seemed to be most fitting. I mean, genres are so mixed up now, I suppose it doesn’t matter what type of genre you consider your music; when it comes down to it, we’re in the folk, alt-country, Americana, blues, rock & roll world I suppose; “cemetery blues” is just easier to say. However, I discovered later that “Cemetery Blues” is also a beautiful jazz tune by Bessie Smith—the 20s at its best.

KW: You’re lyrics seems to be in sync with the dark side, How would you describe the place from which your music comes together? (Where do you draw your inspiration from?)

TBH: It’s hard to say. I’ve been into darker things since I can remember—my dad would bring me into occult shops for fun, or we’d visit a Spanish Inquisition wax museum, or I’d surreptitiously watch Tales from the Crypt when my parents weren’t looking. I’ve collected horror movies and Edward Gorey books since I owned a wallet, and I eventually moved to Scotland to get my masters degree in Gothic Literature. I’d say it’s something very innate, and I don’t consciously think about my lyrics being dark, it’s just something that naturally occurs I suppose. My favorite writing has always been the kind that has a melancholy haze floating through it, and I guess if you surround yourself with enough of that kind of stuff, it comes out in your own work.

KW: We know some bands stop playing shows and just focus on recording while some actually pack up and go away to an undisclosed location to write and work out their music. What was your recording process like for this album?

TBH: Well, I certainly wish we could have dropped our lives and moved to Rome for a few months and cut a record in some catacombs, but we did it all here in South Philly at Racetrack Sound Studios. We had recently worked on our Bob Dylan cover with Shane Moore from Racetrack and Lance Davis from RokBox Productions; it was such a positive experience that we all decided to work on the record together. We took it a weekend at a time because of our different schedules, so it felt like a long process at times, but we just chipped away at it till we got the sounds we wanted and agreed upon. We put a lot of ourselves into that album; that being said, I was ready to start work on the next album before we were even finished with Along the Gallows.

KW: What are your future plans? What do we have to look forward to? upcoming shows or tours? (or tell us all something about yourselves that you’d like us to know about!)

TBH: We’re planning on releasing an EP before the summer to coincide with our short tour down south in April…or our concert at Laurel Hill Cemetery in June…I guess it depends when we get a chance to get back into the studio. We’re in the preliminary stages of picking songs, but we’re an anxious bunch and will start recording as soon as humanly possible.

We’re also playing at North Star Bar on Friday, January 27th, which is a new venue for us as a band, so we’re naturally looking forward to that.

KW: Did any of you make any New Year resolutions? If not, what was the weirdest gift you have ever received ?

TBH: My New Year’s resolution was to quit my job at the morgue and start focusing on people with more substantial conversational skills.

Weirdest gift? The resurrected skeleton of my childhood cat Loretta.

KW: This is a great album, we can’t wait to see what the future holds in store for your music. Thanks for your time and Happy New Year!

TBH: Thanks for giving it a listen. We really appreciate it and hope you can make it out to a show soon.

KW: Off the record, Ryan, your voice reminds me of David Gray, has anyone ever told you that?

TBH: Haha, no, I have never been told that. Incidentally, I started breaking out into a David Gray song as a joke the other night at practice—so, a synchronistic observation for sure. - Indie Music Reviewer

"I often refer to the music of The Bailey Hounds as 'cemetery blues'," says Ryan Petrillo, the band's lead singer and principal lyricist. "I'd like to imagine all these songs being sung in the failing light of a neglected graveyard."

Although the emerging foursome's repertoire includes songs with titles like "Malleus Maleficarum" (Latin for "The Hammer of Witches") listeners expecting the hoarse growls and bloody imagery of death metal are in for a surprise. The Bailey Hounds approach their subject with understatement, preferring brushes to blast beats.
In fact, the band's mix of acoustic and electric, folk and rock, reveals that it owes far more to Fairport Convention than to Cannibal Corpse. Petrillo describes it best: "I wanted to find a happy medium between Rob Zombie's 'La Sexorcisto: Devil Music, Vol. 1' and 'The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan'." After years of playing in everything from punk bands to touring as a sideman for indie popsters Liam and Me, the amiable front man has finally found his voice.

That's partially due to his band-mates, whose musicianship the songwriter generously praises. Guitarist Vince Federici and drummer Gary Lebiedzinski studied music at the University of Arts, and Chris Cardillo is an old collaborator who switched to bass at Petrillo's suggestion. Together, they help the lead singer flesh out his musical ideas, but there's more to it than that. "I like to approach a band as them being friends rather than co-workers," he says, before adding, "You get a better sound that way."

Listeners can hear the fruits of The Bailey Hounds' musical camaraderie on tracks like "Fields of Avalon," where the musicians' restraint enhances the song. "Mary, all dressed in blue/ Shinin' against the sickle moon/ Quiet like a scarecrow, movin' in the wind/ Sweeter than honey, drier than gin," Petrillo sings.

The frontman finds his peers' input invaluable, but he takes full responsibility for whatever grittiness or darkness appears. Perhaps it was inevitable. As a kid, he was captivated by horror. "I would watch 'Tales from the Crypt' from the stairwell of my house completely unbeknownst to my parents," he says. In fact, his lifelong fascination with ghost stories, serial killers and B-movie horror is so serious that he pursued it as far as Scotland, earning a master's degree from the University of Stirling's graduate program in the "Gothic Imagination."

Adepts may divine this influence in everything from the band's name (a bailey is a type of castle and, in Petrillo's mind, those hounds are far from welcoming) to its lyrics. In "Oh My Demons, How They Wander," for example, he intones: "Oh the sun, how it refused to shine/ On My blackened soul, upon my darkened mind." Fortunately for music lovers, The Bailey Hounds avoid both the cartoonish character of metal bands like Mortician and the Tolkien fixation of much psych-folk.

In fact, the quartet's overall vibe is firmly in the mainstream, no surprise given that Petrillo was weaned on classic rock and enthusiastically cites both Pantera and Springsteen personal favorites. Listeners can occasionally discern those influences in little touches, like the Nebraska-era harmonica that crops up in "Always on the Wrong Side."

Although Petrillo began playing with Lebiedzinski almost two years ago, it's only been in the last few months that The Bailey Hounds have been gigging regularly. The reception has been so good that the band will embark on its first shows outside of the Delaware Valley and has also been invited to contribute to WXPN's celebration of Bob Dylan's 70th birthday later this spring. (They're covering "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right"). Most important, the band is already recording tracks for its first album, slated to be released sometime this summer.

Petrillo won't go into detail about the The Bailey Hounds' debut, but his artistic sensibility offers some clues. "The most appealing colors, sounds, and textures to me are the aesthetic elements found in your average low-budget horror film from the 70s," he says. "I try to capture the grittiness in any way possible, whether it be a word, an arrangement of notes and chords...or the mere neglect of my shitty beard." - Origivation Magazine

The Philly quartet The Bailey Hounds include members Ryan Petrillo (lead singer), Gary Lebiedzinski, Vince Federici, and Chris Cardillo. They are currently in the process of completing the recording of their first full-length album “Along the Gallows.” Below is their cover of Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice” that they recorded for Dylan’s 70th Birthday, - WXPN 88.5

Given that their last album (Reinventing The Steel) came out 11 years ago and they’re one of the more influential metal bands of the last 20 years, it’s not really all that surprising to hear an acoustic cover of a Pantera song. What is surprising to hear is an acoustic cover of one of the band’s most abrasive and least radio-friendly songs, the title track from 1996's The Great Southern Trendkill. While Philadelphia rock station WYSP has gone the way of Pantera, on one of the final shows of their local music showcase program, Loud and Local, alt-country band The Bailey Hounds dropped by to do a virtually unrecognizable cover of the song. And it’s pretty damn good. Host Spike helpfully plays back a bit of the original for those not in the loop, which was probably most of the people in the room. - Metal Insider

Video footage Philadelphia-based indie folk band THE BAILEY HOUNDS perfoming an acoustic cover version of PANTERA's classic song "The Great Southern Trendkill" on the final edition of "Loud & Local" with Spike on the 94.1 WYSP radio station can be viewed below.

THE BAILEY HOUNDS are well-versed in the arts of resurrection and possession. The band's first full length album, "Along The Gallows", will be available for download on Devil's Night, October 30. - Blabbermouth.net (Roadrunner Records)

Indie folk rock and Pantera are not two things mentioned often in the same breath, but today is one of those rare occasions. Philadelphia-based indie-folk band The Bailey Hounds recently performed an acoustic cover of Pantera's "The Great Southern Trendkill." The results? Watch the video below and decide for yourself.

The cover follows in the footsteps of some unlikely metal covers, like Tori Amos' take on Slayer's "Raining Blood" or Ryan Adams' cover of Iron Maiden's "Wasted Years."

The Bailey Hounds will release their first album, Along The Gallows, on October 30. - Guitar World