“A while back, about 1930, give or take, the story comes down that blues legend-to-be Robert Johsnon cut a deal with Satan on a moonless night at a remote crossroads in rural Mississippi. What few musicologists or cultural historians have recorded is that Johnson was accompanied by a sidekick, a guy who was a bit shorter and a lot whiter than the future blues master. Now, to look at Trey Barker, you could be a mite skeptical. He looks way too young.
But then you check out his eyes and read his fiction. Shoot, he was probably sneaking a peek over W.C. Handy’s shoulder and eavesdropping when that worthy first hear the terrific lyric that gives this collection its title. That Barker guy knows his stroytelling as well as he knows the twists and turns of the heart and gut in the devil’s music. Fact is, I wouldn’t be surprised if he cut his own sweetheart deal with Old Scratch right there at the crossroads way back when.”
-Ed Bryant, author of Flirting with Death
“Where blues music and horror fiction meet is where the southern cross the dog.”
