Review - Pony Bradshaw: Thus Spoke the Fool
Pony Bradshaw’s latest release, Thus Spoke the Fool, is his fourth album but it serves as the third part of a trilogy about the North Georgia region that he calls home. It might feel like you already know some of the characters from listening to his previous two records – Calico Jim, released in 2021, and last year’s North Georgia Rounder. The recurring geography and continued themes provide a sense of familiarity that connects you to this new batch of songs from the very first listen. You were already invested in these stories, and now new layers have been added that pull you deeper into the worlds that were created by Bradshaw’s incredible ability to mix myth, folklore, and history together in a song.
Pony and his band, the North Georgia Rounders, started sprinkling some of the new songs into their live shows late last year and two of them, “Ginseng Daddy” and “The Long Man,” were released as singles earlier this summer. But just like the other two parts of this North Georgia trilogy, listening to the album from top to bottom is the best way to experience his latest effort. It allows you to see the ten individual tracks come together to tell a bigger story, and tie into the stories that have already been told, in a way that few other artists have mastered.
The title song from Calico Jim might have left you wondering if there was a bit of an autobiographical aspect to the tune and this album’s first track, “Ginseng Daddy,” is no different. Bradshaw has described the character as a “man of the hills – made of sun, dust, and dead leaves” and a “retired vagabond and master raconteur” that is “uninterested in the modern world.” Even if there isn’t meant to be a personal connection to Bradshaw’s life, “Ginseng Daddy” is a lively introduction to the rest of the album.
Photo by Carley DuMenil
The sound of a fiddle can be heard in many of the songs, but it might be most prominent in “¡Viva Appalachia!” where the main character describes himself as “hell broke loose in a store-bought suit set to fiddle all Georgia crazy” after pulling up his roots and leaving the holler to answer the call of the city. The addition of fiddle and steel guitar give this song an almost haunting quality while phrases like “cat with six toes” and “pool of denim” describe the scene with the kind of detail you’ve come to expect from Pony Bradshaw.
Not wanting the history of the region and its people to be forgotten, Bradshaw uses “The Long Man” (the Cherokee personification of the river) to share the story of a figure that wanders the land, protecting its rivers and mountains. This song draws attention to the Coosa River which, along with the Hiwassee, makes other appearances later in the album. “By Jeramiah’s Vision,” “Hiwassee Lament,” and “In the Cinnamon Glow” all mention the area's rivers by name. These songs highlight some of the challenges the region has faced throughout history, and touch on tough topics that extend far beyond its boundaries, but they also give a glimpse of the beliefs and principles that keep its people rooted in place. He says they’re “a lifer, filled to the gills with a Highlander’s faith” when they make this commitment to their way of life instead of running off to see what the rest of the world has to offer.
Other songs, like “Housebroke,” give hope for more lighthearted times including “a fish fry in Heaven” where “we’ll all be high-stepping and carrying on like an old mountain wedding.” “In Going to Water,” it’s simple things like a good night’s sleep and daydreams about skinny dipping. Pony kicks those daydreams up a notch in “Young Eudora” when the request is made to “let me paint you in your birthday suit holding a paper plate full of barbeque.”
The final song, “Rebel,” is an unsettling tune about a boy that wants to grow up to follow in his father’s footsteps. It provides another look into the history of the region, naming important figures like Frederick Douglass and John Brown, and ends the album in dramatic fashion.
Thus Spoke the Fool is another example of Pony Bradshaw’s remarkable ability to combine compelling lyrics with striking imagery to paint a picture of life, both past and present, in Appalachia. He had set the bar high for himself with Calico Jim and North Georgia Rounder but was successful in creating an album to compliment them and complete his North Georgia trilogy.
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