Burning In Hell

Album Review

Sure, a country song about the singer's mother is a long and honored tradition in the style, one as old as the Carter Family's early material. Still, it's not every country singer whose maternal tribute features the chorus "She didn't like me too well/My mama was a devil outta hell." But the opening track to David Childers' Burning in Hell is a fine introduction to this idiosyncratic country singer/songwriter. Featuring a pleasantly gruff singing voice that at times sounds shockingly like the actor John Goodman, and a warped lyrical sense that introduces poisonous chemical spills that stain people "with a sulfurous hue" into an otherwise pastoral, lovely acoustic tune like "In the Early Morning," Childers is North Carolina's answer to the similarly quirky west Texas singer/songwriter Terry Allen. Where Allen's day job as an acclaimed painter and sculptor gives his music a slightly artsy and philosophical bent, Childers is a practicing lawyer, and his often scabrous, occasionally ranting lyrics have the complete lack of sentimentality and barely-hidden rage of Flannery O'Connor. His newfound backing trio the Modern Don Juans, featuring his son Robert Childers on drums, is younger and hungrier than the middle-aged singer/songwriter, giving these 14 songs a punky immediacy that perfectly fits the dripping sarcasm and unvarnished imagery of Childers' lyrics. This is country music that would scare the average Faith Hill fan half to death.