Dark Witchy Music

Now that November is upon us, some might say that we have to leave the Halloween spirit in the past. However, those same individuals do not realize that by venturing deeper into the past, we can hold onto the spookiness of October, even in its department. Join me on a moonlit journey where we journey back to the mid-20th century to find unrecognized eerie music of the late 1950s to the early 1970s. Here we will find the haunting cries of Norma Tangea, Kip Tyler, and Skip James whistling in the wind. Travel further into the darkness to hear the howls of Screaming Lord Sutch, Jim Burgett, and Don Hinson. It's too late to turn back now. Take a swig from my flask of “Riboflavin-Flavored, Non-Carbonated Polyunsaturated Blood.” As The Kinks say, you, like “Wicked Annabella”, now know what it means to “live in perpetual midnight.”

Buried by the years and the rubble of all other non-Halloween related music produced during the period, these musicians, passionate about darkness, sang of witches, ghouls, monsters, zombies, and devious deeds happening in graveyards. Paving the way for The Cramps and all spooky music to come, they sang in the shadows right alongside all the sinister supernatural. May this playlist of history's phantoms guide you through the night because we can all always live in the “Season of the Witch.”

— Ella Newgarden