The Merrie Murdre of Gloomadeers
LtR: Ethan “Gastank” Tinker Bell, James Pinkney Spangler, Adam “Legohead” Loudermilk behind Warren Jackson Hearne, Claire Hecko, and McNasty at Rubber Gloves, Denton, TX.
Out of Missoula, Montana, Warren Jackson Hearne wandered into Denton, Texas in 2000, bringing with him a past steeped in underground music and a family engaged in gospel, folk, classical and country. His blending of folklore and traditional ballads created the Merrie Murdre of Gloomadeers, who have been driven by Warren's Sampoerna-clouded music, a music which evokes haunting spirits of dead lovers and pale-faced, avalanche-murdered friends of the past. The Gloomadeers took the stage for the first time in 2002. They appeared as a troupe of gimp-masked, top-hatted, and bare-chested musicians lacing Warren's embalmed ballads with violin, accordion, mandolin, and a chain-wielding percussionist. While the line-up has changed over the years, the instruments have remained the same.
The music maintains a historical presence that resurrects atmospheres of starkly-lit taverns which span from the edges of Cossack battlefields to Edwardian metropolitans. The Gloomadeers have been described as death-folk Americana, stemming from their broken circus sounds led by Warren's whiskey-drenched baritone.
~Eddie Cain 2006
Warren Jackson Hearne and the Merrie Murdre of Gloomadeers is a band started in 2002. With a stage presence akin to a traveling troupe of rag-tags, rusalkas, and executioners, the Gloomadeers surprise with masterfully unique ballads that are truly an amalgamation of ethnic instrumentation steeped in a southern gothic romance. Led by the dark éclat of Warren Jackson Hearne’s rich vocals and inspired by his stories of dead lovers, bar-fighters, and ghost-plagued victims, the Merrie Murdre of Gloomadeers cast a spell that send audiences home cursed to want more. The music of Warren Jackson Hearne and the Merrie Murdre of Gloomadeers borrows from mariachi-inspired string arrangements, flamenco, gospel, country-roots, blues, and absinthe.
The Gloomadeers have performed on bills and festivals with Weyes Blood, Susan Gibson, Voodoo Organist, Reverend Glasseye, Flametrick Subs, Baby Gramps, and more.
“The ramshackle Texan outfit pitches everything from fiddle and banjo to dulcimer and harmonium into its seething goth-folk stew.
-The Onion
“Warren Jackson Hearne and the Merrie Murdre of Gloomadeers: An all-acoustic septet with a concertina player who wears a gimp mask. Mandolin, violin and upright bass all unite in doom-folk mourning. Fronted by Denton's most fashionable troubadour, who has been from Texas to Montana and back, collecting tragic tales of love and death. ”
-The Dallas Observer
“Hearne has more soul than any Baptist church in the tri-state area.
-Denton Indie
“Personally, I will never be the same after that show. Thanks for the haunting, mental imagery guys.”
-Dallas Observer
Tamara Cauble Brown, Warren Jackson Hearne, McNasty at Spooky House.
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Paul Slavens, Tex Bosley behind, Nate DeYonker behind, Warren Jackson Hearne, McNasty behind, Sarah Alexander.
Warren Jackson Hearne, Sarah Alexander, Nate DeYonker, Tamara Cauble Brown, Tex Bosely (drums, not seen), McNasty, Paul Slavens.
