Volcanic band leader, songwriter and actual Kentucky Colonel JD Wilkes embraces the gritty — even creepy — aspects of the blues, country and punk. His band JD Wilkes & the Dirt Daubers’ brand new video “Wild Moon” reinforces the point.
“It’s true. I’m drawn to dark, ‘Southern-gothic’ themes because they tend to be more dramatic. I don’t typically write about anything else,” he tells CMT.com via email. “The way I see it, we need the darkness to tell where the light is.”
In the case of “Wild Moon,” Wilkes says the darkness comes from an actual event “ripped from the headlines.”
“‘Wild Moon’ chronicles the tragic drowning deaths of some Western Kentucky Amish children who were thrown from their parents’ horse and buggy in a late night flash flood,” he says.
Filming of the video took place in the abandoned Columbia Theatre in Paducah, Ky., a tattered testament to old America and the effects of time.