Erik Vincent Huey is not the "real" McCoy, but he plays one on stage.
Whatever name he uses while making his music, his Appalachian roots run true -- and four generations deep in the region.
Having performed by the stage name of Cletus McCoy for several years, off and on, Huey is the co-founder and frontman of The Surreal McCoys, a cowpunk, outlaw country outfit known for their original music interspersed with creative mashups such "Whole Lotta Folsom" (which earned them one reviewer's arch description of possessing a "blue-collar 'Johnny Clash' sound"). (Cletus' stage "siblings" are lead guitarist "Elvis McCoy," bassist "Clint McCoy," drummer "Billy Saul McCoy" and rhythm guitar, harmonica and lap steel player "Goatboy McCoy." Huey said the McCoy clan monikers were inspired by the aliases adapted by a major musical influence, The Ramones.)
Their online biography describes The Surreal McCoys as "a Roots Rock outfit with one foot in the garage and the other on a tipsy roadhouse bar stool" whose songs "recall an era of lesser hygiene and greater guitar riffs. ... The five-piece band has played sweat-soaked shows to ecstatic and inebriated audiences all over America, including SXSW in Austin, Texas, and AmericanaFest in Nashville."
Mining the seams of his personal Mountain State history and experiences, Huey's debut solo album, "Appalachian Gothic," was released on all streaming services on Jan. 20.
"Eric 'Roscoe' Ambel, producer/guitarist, and I wrote 'The Devil is Here in These Hills' for what we thought might grow into two or three songs that could be used in a soundtrack -- a future TV series based on historian James Greene’s incredible book about the West Virginia Coal Mine Wars called 'The Devil is Here in These Hills,'" Huey explained. "As soon as Eric played the opening riff on his Dulcitar, it was like a doorway opened that revealed the entire album.
"My father, grandfather and great-grandfather, who came over from Ireland, were all coal miners in the Monongahela Valley," Huey said, "and I wrote this song before I’d even finished that book. So many immigrants from Ireland, Scotland, Italy and Eastern Europe -- along with African-Americans from the South -- came to mine coal in Appalachia, and this song is an attempt to tell their story and the story of the generations that followed in their footsteps."
The 'American Gothic' soundtrack
On his solo release, Huey dives head -- and voice -- first into memories of his West Virginia youth and juxtaposes them against the "contemporary realities of a hardscrabble region that’s been left behind in many ways," he said.
Several of the "Appalachian Gothic" tracks explore, in raw, frank and unflinching lyrics, darker themes of Appalachian culture, such as the legacy of coal mining and the opioid crisis -- songs such as the aforementioned “The Devil is Here in These Hills” (which was released as the first single last November), “Dear Dad," “The Appalachian Blues,” and “The Battle of Uniontown.”
"Appalachian Gothic" also counters the bleakness of some of the songs with glimmers of optimism on tracks such as the uptempo, hard-rocking “Winona” and the pro-union anthem, “Yours in the Struggle.”
Classic country sounds, seemingly extracted from 1960s and 1970s honky tonks, flavor Huey's numbers “You Can’t Drink All Day”and the "torch-lit two-stepper" “That’s What Jukeboxes Are For.” The latter is a duet with alt-country singer Laura Cantrell. A "Spaghetti Western" feel permeates “Death County,” and punk rock -- an early influence in his life -- underscores Huey's “Lucy.”
A cover of John Cooper Clarke's "A Heart Disease Called Love" is a nod to The Ramones and features the jump-blues baritone saxophone wielded by Steve Berlin of Los Lobos.
Huey wrote approximately half of the songs on "Appalachian Gothic" with Ambel, who also produced the album, recorded at Cowboy Technical Studios in Greenpoint in Brooklyn.
The roots of the recordings
Born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, 55 years ago, Huey moved to Morgantown when he was 8 years old and grew up there. Coming of age during the early years of punk rock, Huey immersed himself in the music of performers such as The Blasters, X, Jason and The Scorchers, The Beat Farmers, and Mojo Nixon. Later, he unearthed some vintage cassettes by country legends George Jones and Johnny Cash and George Jones; he'd heard their songs as a child riding in the cab of his Uncle Jack’s 18-wheeler.
"Growing up in Morgantown, I was into New Wave and punk music. I didn't identify with country until I started listening to U-92 [WWVU-FM] in Morgantown. That's where I first heard those bands that were crossing over from punk into country. It was amazing stuff -- sort of like punk rock from an outsider's point of view combined with country music which is also an outsider's point of view," Huey said. "I found out I really love the twang of country music -- Johnny Cash, Dwight Yoakum, and George Jones, whose 'He Stopped Loving Her Today' was formative for me."
He received scholarships to attend the University of Miami and Notre Dame (where he met with his eventual Surreal McCoys bandmates when they were in law school together).
Huey now works by day as a lobbyist and advocate at his own firm in Washington, D.C., but plays at a variety of venues throughout the D.C.-Baltimore Corridor whenever he can.
“This record is a love letter to Appalachia," he said. "Like so many West Virginians, I had to eventually leave the place where I grew up. As the locals say, I had to 'get out to get ahead,' which created a lasting sense of exile. So this album is a homecoming of sorts. It’s a realization that although I spent my life tunneling out, those rugged hills kept calling me home.
"Having grown up in the Mon Valley, I very much consider myself a West Virginian and an Appalachian. After I'd put out a couple of records with The Surreal McCoys, I started to think about where I was from."
While reading "The Devil is Here in These Hills," "I learned things I wasn't taught in my eighth grade West Virginia history classes," he said. "I was just riveted and thought it would make an amazing series on HBO or something like that. I'm still trying to get that made.
"I started to write songs about Blair Mountain and the Paint Creek and Cabin Creek strikes. Eric and I had an EP's worth of songs, and it didn't make sense to ask the McCoys to sing about coal mining and unions. I widened the aperture a bit to look at the opioid crisis and the forgotten people of Appalachia.
"It's so personal and so rich for me -- I thought it's time Appalachia got its due. It's baked into the social fabric of America, certainly in the musical fabric. I realized from conversations about workers' rights and people coming together that these are universal stories."
"Appalachian Gothic" has received the type of feedback a musician wants to hear -- extremely positive, he said.
"It's been great -- and it's surprising the degree people relate to this," he said. "When I put this out, I wondered if anybody outside of Appalachia was going to get this and if people in Appalachia would think it's true to form. I was nervously sending key tracks to friends I grew up with in Morgantown.
"Do you have to have a coal heritage to enjoy it? The answer is no. American Songwriter's review was extraordinarily positive.
"I think people relate to the authenticity of it. It's a genuinely unique and American story. People are searching for authenticity in modern culture. There's a lot of geographic specificity in the songs, mentioning the Allegheny Mountains, the Monongahela River, 'creekers.' I think there's a universality in specificity.
"The response has been overwhelming, terrific, a little over the top even. When we did the debut concert Feb. 10 in D.C., the people really related to it and responded to even the slow songs. I didn't want all of the songs to be a meditation on Appalachia's post-industrial decline -- not like Springsteen's 'Nebraska,' but more like his 'The River,' which has some songs on it that were more upbeat. I wanted to capture the full universe, holistically, of Appalachia then and now. It's clear that people who have no connection to those stories are still responding very positively to them. It's been a delight."
Huey said he returns to West Virginia as frequently as he can. "I get back a lot, to Morgantown and Cheat Lake where I grew up," he said. "My girls really love Canaan Resort, so we go to Davis in the summer and winter. It's all so close. I stay at a friend's cabin in Grant County, too, and there's a great spot to get a burger called The Farmer's Daughter at Capon Bridge.
"Just by virtue of working on this project," he added, "I've reconnected with my youth and where I'm from. I think in modern society we tend to meander, wander and forget where we're from. I think I've spent more time in my mind in West Virginia these past two or three years than I did in my first 18 years growing up there. I wonder if had I not gone to college, would I have followed my dad into the mines? That was a real possibility when I was in junior high."
Huey also hankers to bring his live music back to Mountain State audiences as soon as the opportunities might present themselves.
"My goal is to play at 'Mountain Stage.' I'd like to play at places like 123 Pleasant Street in Morgantown and the Empty Glass in Charleston and then make it to 'Mountain Stage,'" he said.
More information about his music, along with a link to download "Appalachian Gothic," can be found at www.erikvincenthuey.com/epk. Huey's website address is www.erikvincenthuey.com. He also maintains pages on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
Having performed by the stage name of Cletus McCoy for several years, off and on, Huey is the co-founder and frontman of The Surreal McCoys, a cowpunk, outlaw country outfit known for their original music interspersed with creative mashups such "Whole Lotta Folsom" (which earned them one reviewer's arch description of possessing a "blue-collar 'Johnny Clash' sound"). (Cletus' stage "siblings" are lead guitarist "Elvis McCoy," bassist "Clint McCoy," drummer "Billy Saul McCoy" and rhythm guitar, harmonica and lap steel player "Goatboy McCoy." Huey said the McCoy clan monikers were inspired by the aliases adapted by a major musical influence, The Ramones.)
Their online biography describes The Surreal McCoys as "a Roots Rock outfit with one foot in the garage and the other on a tipsy roadhouse bar stool" whose songs "recall an era of lesser hygiene and greater guitar riffs. ... The five-piece band has played sweat-soaked shows to ecstatic and inebriated audiences all over America, including SXSW in Austin, Texas, and AmericanaFest in Nashville."
Mining the seams of his personal Mountain State history and experiences, Huey's debut solo album, "Appalachian Gothic," was released on all streaming services on Jan. 20.
"Eric 'Roscoe' Ambel, producer/guitarist, and I wrote 'The Devil is Here in These Hills' for what we thought might grow into two or three songs that could be used in a soundtrack -- a future TV series based on historian James Greene’s incredible book about the West Virginia Coal Mine Wars called 'The Devil is Here in These Hills,'" Huey explained. "As soon as Eric played the opening riff on his Dulcitar, it was like a doorway opened that revealed the entire album.
"My father, grandfather and great-grandfather, who came over from Ireland, were all coal miners in the Monongahela Valley," Huey said, "and I wrote this song before I’d even finished that book. So many immigrants from Ireland, Scotland, Italy and Eastern Europe -- along with African-Americans from the South -- came to mine coal in Appalachia, and this song is an attempt to tell their story and the story of the generations that followed in their footsteps."
The 'American Gothic' soundtrack
On his solo release, Huey dives head -- and voice -- first into memories of his West Virginia youth and juxtaposes them against the "contemporary realities of a hardscrabble region that’s been left behind in many ways," he said.
Several of the "Appalachian Gothic" tracks explore, in raw, frank and unflinching lyrics, darker themes of Appalachian culture, such as the legacy of coal mining and the opioid crisis -- songs such as the aforementioned “The Devil is Here in These Hills” (which was released as the first single last November), “Dear Dad," “The Appalachian Blues,” and “The Battle of Uniontown.”
"Appalachian Gothic" also counters the bleakness of some of the songs with glimmers of optimism on tracks such as the uptempo, hard-rocking “Winona” and the pro-union anthem, “Yours in the Struggle.”
Classic country sounds, seemingly extracted from 1960s and 1970s honky tonks, flavor Huey's numbers “You Can’t Drink All Day”and the "torch-lit two-stepper" “That’s What Jukeboxes Are For.” The latter is a duet with alt-country singer Laura Cantrell. A "Spaghetti Western" feel permeates “Death County,” and punk rock -- an early influence in his life -- underscores Huey's “Lucy.”
A cover of John Cooper Clarke's "A Heart Disease Called Love" is a nod to The Ramones and features the jump-blues baritone saxophone wielded by Steve Berlin of Los Lobos.
Huey wrote approximately half of the songs on "Appalachian Gothic" with Ambel, who also produced the album, recorded at Cowboy Technical Studios in Greenpoint in Brooklyn.
The roots of the recordings
Born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, 55 years ago, Huey moved to Morgantown when he was 8 years old and grew up there. Coming of age during the early years of punk rock, Huey immersed himself in the music of performers such as The Blasters, X, Jason and The Scorchers, The Beat Farmers, and Mojo Nixon. Later, he unearthed some vintage cassettes by country legends George Jones and Johnny Cash and George Jones; he'd heard their songs as a child riding in the cab of his Uncle Jack’s 18-wheeler.
"Growing up in Morgantown, I was into New Wave and punk music. I didn't identify with country until I started listening to U-92 [WWVU-FM] in Morgantown. That's where I first heard those bands that were crossing over from punk into country. It was amazing stuff -- sort of like punk rock from an outsider's point of view combined with country music which is also an outsider's point of view," Huey said. "I found out I really love the twang of country music -- Johnny Cash, Dwight Yoakum, and George Jones, whose 'He Stopped Loving Her Today' was formative for me."
He received scholarships to attend the University of Miami and Notre Dame (where he met with his eventual Surreal McCoys bandmates when they were in law school together).
Huey now works by day as a lobbyist and advocate at his own firm in Washington, D.C., but plays at a variety of venues throughout the D.C.-Baltimore Corridor whenever he can.
“This record is a love letter to Appalachia," he said. "Like so many West Virginians, I had to eventually leave the place where I grew up. As the locals say, I had to 'get out to get ahead,' which created a lasting sense of exile. So this album is a homecoming of sorts. It’s a realization that although I spent my life tunneling out, those rugged hills kept calling me home.
"Having grown up in the Mon Valley, I very much consider myself a West Virginian and an Appalachian. After I'd put out a couple of records with The Surreal McCoys, I started to think about where I was from."
While reading "The Devil is Here in These Hills," "I learned things I wasn't taught in my eighth grade West Virginia history classes," he said. "I was just riveted and thought it would make an amazing series on HBO or something like that. I'm still trying to get that made.
"I started to write songs about Blair Mountain and the Paint Creek and Cabin Creek strikes. Eric and I had an EP's worth of songs, and it didn't make sense to ask the McCoys to sing about coal mining and unions. I widened the aperture a bit to look at the opioid crisis and the forgotten people of Appalachia.
"It's so personal and so rich for me -- I thought it's time Appalachia got its due. It's baked into the social fabric of America, certainly in the musical fabric. I realized from conversations about workers' rights and people coming together that these are universal stories."
"Appalachian Gothic" has received the type of feedback a musician wants to hear -- extremely positive, he said.
"It's been great -- and it's surprising the degree people relate to this," he said. "When I put this out, I wondered if anybody outside of Appalachia was going to get this and if people in Appalachia would think it's true to form. I was nervously sending key tracks to friends I grew up with in Morgantown.
"Do you have to have a coal heritage to enjoy it? The answer is no. American Songwriter's review was extraordinarily positive.
"I think people relate to the authenticity of it. It's a genuinely unique and American story. People are searching for authenticity in modern culture. There's a lot of geographic specificity in the songs, mentioning the Allegheny Mountains, the Monongahela River, 'creekers.' I think there's a universality in specificity.
"The response has been overwhelming, terrific, a little over the top even. When we did the debut concert Feb. 10 in D.C., the people really related to it and responded to even the slow songs. I didn't want all of the songs to be a meditation on Appalachia's post-industrial decline -- not like Springsteen's 'Nebraska,' but more like his 'The River,' which has some songs on it that were more upbeat. I wanted to capture the full universe, holistically, of Appalachia then and now. It's clear that people who have no connection to those stories are still responding very positively to them. It's been a delight."
Huey said he returns to West Virginia as frequently as he can. "I get back a lot, to Morgantown and Cheat Lake where I grew up," he said. "My girls really love Canaan Resort, so we go to Davis in the summer and winter. It's all so close. I stay at a friend's cabin in Grant County, too, and there's a great spot to get a burger called The Farmer's Daughter at Capon Bridge.
"Just by virtue of working on this project," he added, "I've reconnected with my youth and where I'm from. I think in modern society we tend to meander, wander and forget where we're from. I think I've spent more time in my mind in West Virginia these past two or three years than I did in my first 18 years growing up there. I wonder if had I not gone to college, would I have followed my dad into the mines? That was a real possibility when I was in junior high."
Huey also hankers to bring his live music back to Mountain State audiences as soon as the opportunities might present themselves.
"My goal is to play at 'Mountain Stage.' I'd like to play at places like 123 Pleasant Street in Morgantown and the Empty Glass in Charleston and then make it to 'Mountain Stage,'" he said.
More information about his music, along with a link to download "Appalachian Gothic," can be found at www.erikvincenthuey.com/epk. Huey's website address is www.erikvincenthuey.com. He also maintains pages on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
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