QueerCuts: Hank Pine
Hank Pine is a virtuoso musician from British Columbia – he sings songs whose truth cannot be denied and they can just work their way into your soul until you find yourself singing them at every campfire along the way.
Most of his recorded catalog was done with the intoxicating singer and woodland creature Lily Fawn. The adventures of Hank & Lily also often comes with a comic book (drawn by Pine) that details the origins of the songs as part of their journey together – creating an operatic mythology of the band that the music completely lives up to.
Together they’ve made some absolutley epic roots music, and their album North America is truly one of the most timeless country albums I’ve ever heard full of prison songs, south of the border influences, and ruminations on religion, morality, and the plight of modern human.
The song I’ve chosen lends a sympathetic ear to God’s most famous fallen angel: Lucifer. Dealing in the business of good and evil, sacred and profane, well sometimes that can be the most beautiful and complicated place of all – Hank & Lily (along with a 30 person choir) walk those edges with an exquisite pathos that to me, is the heart of country music.
-Cindy Emch