"Negra Sombra Sœurs" translates, into English, as "Black Shadow Sisters." The title derives from a song in a film about a paralyzed writer seen on DVD from the Tucson public library, one night, & the French word for 'sisters,' perhaps meaning 'nuns,' as well. Dunno why.
Travels across the southern & western United States had transformed Converse All-Star wearin' Greenpoint, Brooklyn-hipster musician C. Depp into Justin Roper, denim black Spidey Wrangler-wearin' country musician 'Memphis' C. Depp.
It all started, somehow somehow, when C. tried to move to Paris, France for u-know-why & it didn't work out exactly. With a little help from his beautiful, God bless 'em, friends, Christo's lost soul sort-of began to live again & country music was the answer. Props & love to the Carter Family & A.P. Carter, Townes Van Zandt, the great Bill Monroe, Mattie Kinman, Bob Dylan & Neil Young, to name a few.
These songs are attempts & alotta them are home recordings. Love & thanks to Andrew 'Bruno' Malenda for patient, caring & unpaid (financially, yet) production, mixing & mastering.
Without Andrew Malenda this album would not exist for anyone to hear, & neither would the previous two releases.
Love & thanks to Sarah 'Jean' Ziebell for friendship, encouragement & country music. I thought I knew what it was, but Sarah Jean made me understand what it is.
Love to Sarah 'Rosie' Rose for love & companionship in music & travels across the U.S.A., from Club de Veste de Jean to forgive-me-for-my-trespasses. Sarah 'Rider Rosie' Rose's vocals & fiddle can be heard (on this album) on the songs "Lone Star Light," "Lonesome Pine Special," "Talkin' Black Spidey Blues VII" and "Sweet Mama." Check out her solo recordings under the name Rider Rosie, at bandcamp & ...
Alot of these songs on this record are public domain traditional songs recorded by the original Carter Family. Thanks to Bear Family Records for all their amazing releases, including their complete studio recordings of the Carter Family boxset, "In the Shadow of Clinch Mountain." Also, thanks to the New York Public Library (NYPL) system for access to these recordings.
The original songs on this album were painstakingly & slowly written in-between day jobs at coffeeshops, bars, restaurants & certified organic grocery stores.
The 'Talkin' Black Spidey Blues' series numbers 11 total songs (as of t'day, T'anksgiving 2013) and counting. The series is inspired by Jimmie Rodgers' (America's Blue Yodeler) series of Blue Yodels, #'d I-XIII. God Bless Jimmie Rodgers & the Carter Family.
The other originals were written as the spirit took me, & hope & pray it will take me again. If I ever get some Transcendental Meditation (TM) going in my life, I will have David Lynch to thank & probably more songs on the table, more frequently, but as of yet they come in small clouds. There are poems too, add me on facebook & u will see them on your news feed when the spirit takes me.
All feedback & communication from anyone interested is more than welcome. This is an artist with less than 50 living fans in this world, so if you are reading this you are in at the ground level. Been 'working' at it since 2001, I think, & the albums that are available & released thru CDBaby (of Portland, Oregon) are the best I have to offer. Occasionally there is a live performance. Come on out for it, if you will, I would love to see u there. I appreciate u very much for listening & hope these songs bring u something positive & hopeful.


"I Found U Among the Roses," as originally sung by A.P. Carter, on an early Carter Family 78, is as close to beautiful tear male vocal performance as I have ever heard. Attempting to cover it is only to bring attention to the beautiful, under-recognized original recording.
"Beautiful Brown Eyes" I picked up from the Carter Family's Texas border radio sessions. A.P. Carter said on ouija it was his favourite of the Carter songs I covered at the time, so I take that as the best compliment I can hope for from him. I think the original Texas radio version I heard was sung by little Anita Carter (from the Carter Sisters), & it's a beautiful song. Love & thanks to the more talented musician Julie Margat (of Lipsector) for making a music video for this song, which she loves as much as I do, I think.
Both these first two songs ("Roses" and "Brown Eyes") were initially recorded/engineered by Erik Schmall (of Dayton, Ohio) late 2007/early 2008 in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, at his apartment the week after our coffeeshop, the AshBox Cafe closed for business & right as I was leaving/moving to Austin, Texas. Erik did a beautiful job capturing these songs while they were fresh in my mind, before I forgot how to play them both. Andrew Malenda sorted those basic tracks out afterwards, mixing the recordings & adding beautiful violin overdubs & sequencing. Annika F. Kiernan plays the viola parts, Valerie Strattan plays the violin.
"Wildwood Flower" is a country music standard. I restored (& then edited) the original lyrics from the song's origin version, "I'll Twine Mid the Ringlets" (1860), they say by composer Joseph Philbrick Webster & poet Maud Irving (aka J. William Van Namee). Only GOD knows the truth on that one.
"Talkin' Black Spidey Blues I" was recorded by Andrew Malenda in-studio right when it was written sometime maybe around 2008 or late 2007. That was the first one, messing around with what the banjo could do in G-tuning (standard banjo tuning).
"Talkin' Black Spidey Blues VIII (Born Black, Born Blue)" was recorded by me on 4-track cassette tape, in Memphis, TN circa 2009, that's the winter I lived in Memphis. Benjamin 'Sex' Bauermeister plays drums/percussion on that track; successful standup bassman 'Mr.' Andrew Simons plays acoustic standup bass on there; & belle Sarah 'Rosie' Rose does fiddle.
"Talkin' Black Spidey Blues X" was recorded by me garageband-style on my laptop at home Austin, TX circa summer 2012 & it was inspired by Billie Holiday's version of "Why Was I Born?," which 'Little' Jimmie Scott sang too, & I love 'em both to death, God bless 'em again.
"Sleepin' at the Xroads" aka 'Crossroads' is not an Eric Clapton cover, but rather a rap song that started life as a poem which I once read aloud at Hank's Saloon in Downtown Brooklyn, NYC; I think either L.J. Murphy or Al Duvall or Joe Maynard was there, I love all three NYC songwriters I just mentioned. It's hard to get anywhere in this world without money, but money doesn't really solve any problems, it just creates d'fferent ones & this song MAY be about that fact, or something else. I am a cash-handler (aka cashier) currently, so I always remember how money & the POS (Point of Sale) comes into play on/in any given game. BTW (by the way) I think I read this poem at Hank's Saloon one night in 2007 maybe early 2008, but definitely before I moved to Austin, TX in early 2008 for the beginning of my, what turns out to be, life tour. So, there is a poem version & this is the rap/song version of this song. Daniel 'Danny' Baglio told me the original 'joke'/story, back at Saxton Middle School (Medford) that was the seed of this whole idea/song. Two brothers, one house, one question, one liar. Go figure.
"Talkin' Too Many Monkeys Jumpin' on the Bed Blues" again comes from childhood/schooldays inspiration. I went to Kiddy Kollege preschool in Medford, NY & they used to let us jump on the bed upstairs, at least once, & I think I thought about maybe a kid could get hurt. Also, all the breeders (no offense but) keep on mass-producing their offspring when there's these kids that are not adopted & noone loves & there is this whole idea of 'I wanna f--- but then I wanna act like I didnt as far as I didnt use contraception now I am preggers. ' Whatever, u jump on the bed, u knock yr head, that's what u get for jumpin' on the bed, baby.
"Lonesome Pine Special" is another Carter Family number & I love it. I never thought I sang it well & of course Rosie has the most beautiful, gonna-be-sucessful voice, so I asked her to sing it instead. She did it good. & it's about Texas, & we both are Texans. Texas is always in my heart. Don't believe what they tell u, Texas is always in my heart. I also love the tune so much, I keep stealing it. My version of "Talkin' Black Spidey Blues XI (Raylan Youse Got the Blues)" (soundcloud only right now) has the same melody, only it's acapella & d'fferent words. The song remains the same.
"I Am a Denim Black Spidey Wrangler" came about when I emailed or facebook'd out a poem I wrote, with that same title, & Malcolm Elijah Welbourne aka 'Eli' went & put it thru some vocoder algorthym website thing he had, & emailed it back to me. I loved it. I asked him to vocode the rest. Sadly, he ignored my email. So, whateves, this is all he vocoded. That's the song/poem now, truncated. U have Eli to thank if u miss the rest. He never wrote me back & I emailed/asked him more than once. Dude is busy being successful, first Belaire, now Silent Diane-style. He's cool.
"Raised in Barns" was written for Sarah ... in French Place, East Austin, early 2008. Dunno why it was so important that I washed my hands, but it was a deal breaker. I don't disown anyone I have ever cared about.
"Sweet Mama" is the hit single. It's a song, to me, about underage love. I don't believe in age of consent love laws. Whatever, call me a creep. I was 1-teen once too. We can all make our own decisions & live with them. Just sayin'
"Lone Star Light" is/as a duet with Sarah 'Rosie' Rose was written b'fore I met Rose but might as well be for her, cause it is. True love, two step, Texas girls, y'all have my heart forever. God bless the grackles & the sparrows & the nightengales & every other nighttime singing bird of Texas.
"I'm Your Old Man" is an Invisible Friend song. Andrew Malenda wrote/recorded the guitar. I wrote/sang the words. Just want to get it out there, the next Invisible Friend record will be totally different.
"I Ain't Gonna Work T'Morrow" is another Carter Family number that resonates with me & every workin' man, I'm sure. I played it first live at Clementine Coffeeshop, Manor Road, on a gig split with Cari Palazzolo solo, she is awesome. Cari P. is my favourite Austin musician, after Dale Watson, hands down, Cari P. rules & everything she does is beautiful.
"Darkheart Blues" is a hella old outtake from "Belle épine," guess this is the flashback corner of the record. It is/was a good song that never got put out. Now it has it's 'day.' It was inspired by "Care Bears Movie II," which I love; the entire soundtrack & cast of that film; & my niece Kaitlyn Elizabeth Depp & nephew Brannen Thomas Depp & their love of watching that film endlessly as I babysat them in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn circa 2007, holy nostalgia Spidey.
"Lovin' On" was written for Rose. Hope she doesn't hate me too much nowadays, I tried.
"Be My Frend..." was a one-off, for fun, so I could record with Chazz Bessette. He's such a great musician & he just wants to play! I wish him every success, he totally deserves it. Chazz is the real deal, he is great at music.
"O Take Jealous-Hearted Me Back" is a long story. Short version, it is a combo of "Jealous-Hearted Me" by the Carter Family, " "Hesitation Blues' via the Holy Modal Rounders and "O Take Me Back, " originally Carter Famiy but heard by me offa M. Ward, who I also love. & I love Howe Gelb too. & I love Chan Marshall (Cat Power), Robert Pollard, Kurt Vile, Thurston Moore, Cass McCombs, Bill Callahan & Gerald Jay King. So there, I said it.
The last song, "House Carpenter/Daemon Lover," is another traditional/standard, covered by everyone from Dillard Chandler to Bob Dylan. My version was cobbled t'gether from every existing recording I could find, but mostly inspired by the acapella Appalachian folk versions I heard on cds ripped from the library. The recording engineering on that song is all done & thanks to Jason Floyd, made in Tucson, Arizona in 2011. The 'Monster Mash' vocal algorithm is, again, all Jason's work; beautiful.

Album cover/photo art by Sarah 'Rosie' Rose; taken in Memphis, Tennessee in 2009.

p.s. The film/inspiration for this album title was "The Sea Inside" (2004), directed by Alejandro Amenábar & starring the amazing actor Javier Bardem. The song in the film is "Negra Sombra," versionado por Luz Casal (vocals) & Carlos Nuñez (musique), poema de Rosalía de Castro. Merci beaucoup & all props t'these artists for their beautiful work that inspired a fool like me.

p.p.s. 'banner' drawing/illustration on this website & others, "DUST" (Graphite on paper, 2007) by Anastasia Ugorskaya, www.anastasiaugorskaya.com