Premiere: Brother Dege’s “Bastard’s Blues”

Big blues for the little guy

Farmer’s Almanac, Brother Dege Legg’s sprawling, Southern concept album, explores the unique mysteries of small towns with otherworldly slide guitars and barn-burning anthems. “Bastard’s Blues”

Recognized in two industries, both as a musician (Grammy-nominee for Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained) and a writer (Louisiana Press Award 2004, 2008) Legg remains an outsider artist, clashing with the pecking orders, prejudices, and parochial narrow-mindedness that thrives in small towns.

Legg’s Robert Johnson-on-Thorazine-style slide work paired with his droning-rural psychedelia has brought the backwoods sounds of Louisiana (hurricanes, cows, cicadas) to life. Of this cut, Brother Dege told Elmore: “Bastard’s Blues is what you get when the little guy goes up against the nepotism, pettiness, and violence of the machine. It’s also a prison song for the modern age but set in the noose of the past.”