Gothabilly

Gothabilly plays rockabilly and outlaw country with gothic horror content: slap upright bass, twanging guitar and a baritone croon deliver songs about vampires, graveyards, undead cowboys and cursed small towns, in Victorian funeral dress and western wear. Its roots lie in *The Cramps* and *The Gun Club*, who had already fused hillbilly forms with punk menace, but the style crystallised in the late 1990s around Sweden's *The Coffinshakers*, the #Skully Records# compilation "Gothabilly 2: Rockin' Necropolis", and the Texas hellbilly of *Ghoultown*. It differs from psychobilly in tempo and mood: slower, spookier, and played as much for atmosphere as for speed.