HERODIAS
(Chorale Editions)
As leader of North Carolina's long-running band Snatches of Pink, Michael Rank has created some of the most poetic dirt rock in the South, creating a sort of hybrid of the Rolling Stones and Romanticism. Now he's finally published a volume of straight poetry. Herodias owes a lot to Allen Ginsberg, with free verse seemingly tumbling out of the word processor at random. It owes just as much, however, to a religious upbringing. It's crammed full of Gothic spiritual imagery like "The anatomy of Christians water/The dogshead Simon displays" and phrases like "This last fetching Cross." There's probably a lapsed Catholic in there somewhere, though any liturgical education has been woven with skeins of world mythology, mid-millennial poetics and acid trips. It's a fascinating journey through the psyche of one of the New South's unsung songwriters. It should be interesting to see how Rank's current obsessions with religious symbolism will affect the forthcoming SOP album.
For information on how to obtain a copy of Herodias, visit the Snatches of Pink website at www.snatchesofpink.com. Michael Toland