P. W. Long
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Preston Wright Long is the lead singer and guitar player for the bands Wig, Mule and Reelfoot (also known as P.W. Long's Reelfoot). Purported to be the brother of the frontman of The Laughing Hyenas but this is untrue.
Long, who is very close with his personal details appears to have been reared in the Ypsilanti area. He eventually wound up in Detroit.
His earliest work was with the band Wig, and it is his voice that you hear on the Lying Next to You record. Sometime in the early 1990s, Long began a side project with the Laughing Hyenas' rythmn section, Kevin Munro and Jim Kimball. They put together a concoction of field hollers, backwoods legends, hellbilly canon and mixed it with a semi-punk, semi-metallic musical assault that was best described as northern redneck, but intelligent, clamor [citation needed].
Calling themselves Mule, they released a musical single in 1991 or 1992 containing the song Tennessee Hustler. Their first self-titled album, produced by Leonard John (purported to be Nirvana producer Steve Albini), debuted shortly thereafter.
While it had the raucousness of the Hyenas, and certain punk and alternative sensibilities, Mule was quite different. The album opened with P.W. shouting "I left out to the sound of buckshot rain" on Mississippi Breaks.
As P.W. himself later admitted, Long didn't really know how play to guitar when he started with Mule, or at least not all that "slickly" to use his word. Instead, he used a variety of open tunings and such, coupled with a just a simple feel for what was right, to create his sound. Never bounded by the need for classic guitar solos, P.W. still put the guitar at the forefront with innovative melody lines and breaks.
The self titled album continued on with I'm Hell, the rawking What Every White Nigger Knows, the eerie Drown, the trip into Old NorthWest Folk Music with Now I Truly Understand, the duet with Kevin on Mama's Reason to Cry, Lucky and Sugarcane Zuzu with its admonition from Pbone's grandpappy that "You can wish in one hand, and shit in the other, and see which one fills up first."
Mule's first album ended up on Spin's Ten Best Albums of 1993 You Didn't Hear list and prompted endless touring by the band. New songs were always in progress, with P.W. sometimes simply humming or yoodling the lyrics during live performances over the new music but before lyrics were complete.
Mule followed up their debut album with the EPs Wrung and the album If I Don't Six in 1994. Long left the band in 1996, after their relocation to Philadelphia.
Long formed the band Reelfoot with Mac McNeilly, drummer with The Jesus Lizard and released the albums We Didn't See You on Sunday and Push Me Again in 1997 and 1998 respectively. After this, Long went on a musical hiatus, broken by occasional gigs. During this time he directed the music video for the song You're the Reason by Hank Williams III. Long also started writing, contributing CD reviews to magazines and being the New York nightclub and restaurant critic for London's Crush Guide magazine.
In 2002, the band Shellac, who were curating the All Tomorrow's Parties music festival in Rye, asked Long to appear, and he shared the stage with bands such as Wire and The Fall. After this, Long released his first solo album, Remembered, in 2003.
P.W. Long currently lives in Texas where he contributes to the weekly New York Sports Express.
[edit] Discography
As Mule:
- 1992 - I'm Hell/To Love Somebody - 7"
- 1993 - Mule - LP
- 1994 - Wrung - EP
- 1994 - If I Don't Six - LP
- 1997 - Soul Sound - a split 7" w/ Shellac
As Reelfoot:
- 1997 - We Didn't See You on Sunday - LP
- 1998 - Push Me Again - LP
Solo work:
- 2003 - Remembered - LP
