"Kill the Witness"

“Kill the Witness” - written by Jim Healy © 2010 Jim Healy

The character who booked Floodwatch at Heat also occasionally got us in at The Shaskeen in Manchester, NH. Somewhere along the line there, we met the powerful and prolific Jim Healy. His Bandcamp bio says he, “is the guitarist and vocalist for Blood Lightning, Alreckque, Set Fire, We're All Gonna Die, Black Thai and Shatner.” It doesn’t mention that he is a super nice guy and one hell of a songwriter. At some point, he honored us by being on the bill for a show we put together at a small club and wowed us with his solo acoustic set. His huge voice and chiming acoustic guitar were haunting. All of his songs were/are amazing but “Kill the Witness,” from his album Dreams of Odessa, is my particular favorite.

Jim lets it be known on The Social Media that he is, among other things, a Zeppelin fan. While the Zep never totally enthralled me, I do have an appreciation for Page’s production ideas, for the masterful twisted-Motown bass and drums magic of Bonzo and John Paul Jones, for proggy epics like “Kashmir” (though I do prefer Dio-era Rainbow for my wizarding, such as “Stargazer”...), and for the aforementioned JPJ’s multiinstrumentalist flexes. It is this last item that started my quest. I happen to have a cool antique pump organ. I immediately decided that my version of “Kill the Witness” would be anchored by it. While the soft to loud dynamic concept came from Zeppelin’s grafting of acoustic instrumentation with hard rock swagger, the intimate space I tried to create with the organ is a nod to the Camper Van Beethoven track, “Interlude,” which was really just an impromptu recording of Garth Hudson of The Band while he was warming up on his Lowery organ. And then came all the fuzzes…