I know what you’re thinking. At very least, I know what I was thinking, but actually no, I don’t think “Red Rocking Chair” is heralding a new All Them Witches album. The anticipation of such a thing is understandable as we approach six years since 2020’s Nothing as the Ideal (review here), not that they haven’t had new music to offer since — they spent all of 2022 unfurling singles in a project called ‘Baker’s Dozen’ (discussed here) — and anyway, “Red Rocking Chair” is an American folk traditional, born out of “Sugar Baby,” recordings of which date back about a century. One imagines if the Nashville four-piece — guitarist Ben McLeod, bassist/vocalist Charles Michael Parks, Jr., the returned-in-’21 Allan Van Cleave on keys and violin, and drummer Christian Powers — were starting the cycle for the full-length they said they finished just over a year ago, they’d do so with an original. Or maybe not. They’ve always had a softspot for breaking that kind of rule.

The earliest live showcasing of their take on “Red Rocking Chair” I can find is from late 2024, but it was part of the encore when I was lucky enough to see them this past December in Brooklyn (review here) as well, and while they’re not talking album at this point — one imagines there are some things to sort on the business end, label-wise, and so on — it’s still possible the unveiling of this track and visualizer is a precursor to more. Mind you, it’s also possible it’s a genuine standalone, as All Them Witches have definitely done that before as well — anyone remember “George Dubya Kush?” — but they’ve also recently signed on with new, UK-based PR, and the ‘House of Mirrors Tour’ they undertook last Fall with King Buffalo is picking up again this week, so they’re active across multiple levels regardless of when the awaited next LP actually shows up, and certainly they’ve been touring all the while, sometimes playing full albums, in the years since Nothing as the Ideal, while also welcoming back Van Cleave as noted and bringing Powers into the band and rebuilding the chemistry so crucial to their approach. I’m just saying; they’ve been around.

This is a long way to go — shocking, I know — for me to tell you that maybe a new All Them Witches record happens this year and maybe it doesn’t. Sadly, it’s not up to me. But as these guys are one of the best heavy-anything rock bands of their generation, I’ll take what I can get, and if that’s a ready-for-repeat-listens studio version of “Red Rocking Chair,” I’m perfectly happy to dig in and bask in the inimitable low-key bluesy groove and the massive roll that offsets; elements that make “Red Rocking Chair” signature All Them Witches regardless of the song’s actual origins. Whatever follows will follow.

Enjoy:

All Them Witches, “Red Rocking Chair” visualizer

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Tags: All Them Witches, All Them Witches Red Rocking Chair, Nashville, Red Rocking Chair, Tennessee

This entry was posted on Monday, February 9th, 2026 at 11:27 am and is filed under Bootleg Theater. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.