WATCH: O Lendário Chucrobillyman live in Lexington, 2011

Klaus Koti is known as O Lendário Chucrobillyman, a one-man band from Brazil who wears his Hasil Adkins influence on his sleeve. Koti's The Chicken Album gives a nod to the West Virginia rockabilly madman who recorded an album by the name of Poultry in Motion. Koti's album features tracks such as "Chicken Flow" and "Chicken Strangle." Adkins had a multitude of similarly-named songs - "Chicken Walk," "Chicken Flop" and "Chicken Run" to name a few. Other songs on Koti's album are "Love Miner" and "Whiskey River," which seemingly are also nods to his Appalachian songwriting influence. The music of O Lendário Chucrobillyman lives up to the influence, which is why it received such high praise from fellow Adkins-influenced multi-instrumentalist J Marinelli, who after sharing the stage with Koti, called him the best one-man band he'd seen. Check out these videos of O Lendário Chucrobillyman's show in Lexington.

READ: Tristan Egolf - Lord of the Barnyard

I was recently in Chicago visiting my old friend Aaron (formerly of The Warriors). Aaron, a native of the Charleston area and son of a retired coal miner, is currently an instructor of creative writing at Columbia College. During my visit, Aaron was nearing the end this book - Tristan Egolf's Lord of the Barnyard: Killing the Fatted Calf and Arming the Aware in the Cornbelt. Lord of the Barnyard is a fictional biography/history of farm boy John Kaltenbrunner and the Appalachian-affected Middle America coal town of Baker from where he comes.

Salon wrote of Egolf's 1999 debut novel: "He practices a form of shotgun writing -- aim in the right direction and spray words on the page -- always searching for another country-fried turn of phrase that will one-up his last one. Egolf mixes fable, metaphor and pure anger to attack mob mentality, class warfare, the mindless media and the just-under-the-surface madness of the Midwest. His brilliantly warped, pedal-to-the-metal vision has the obsessive quirkiness of a Pynchon, the rough-and-tumble bad-assness of a Daniel Woodrell and more than a malignant touch of the Faulkner who created the Snopeses."

I'm nearly half-way through the book's 400 pages, and my anticipation builds with every new paragraph. In fact, I missed my bus stop yesterday because I was so entrenched in what was going to happen to Kaltenbrunner next. Though the author or the story have no significant relationship to West Virginia (one minor but memorable character is a Mountain State native), Lord of the Barnyard does ring of Appalachian characteristics familiar to anyone from the region. I highly recommend it. Thanks, Aaron.

WATCH: Daniel Martin Moore - Flyrock Blues

I recently posted a video of Ben Sollee and Daniel Martin Moore performing "Dear Companion", a song about a miner's letter to his wife. It is the title track from their collaborative album, which was produced by Jim James of My Morning Jacket. Also on the album is the soft-spoken track "Flyrock Blues," which is played by Moore alone. It is one of my favorite tracks on the album - probably because he mentions West Virginia. Nevertheless, here is Moore very elegantly playing the song in a shed.

DOWNLOAD: Transistor Indiana - songsforanactivelifestyle

After multiple requests, I'm finally posting this demo from yet another unfortunately short-lived Charleston-area indie rock/emo band. Transistor Indiana formed in the early 2000s around the same time as similarly-styled Apart From the Projector. In the same vein as No Knife, Burning Airlines or Trail of Dead, the Kanawha Valley quintet play a brand of rock that is aggressive, dramatic and some times sweet. A threesome of crispy guitars is fronted by Bud Carroll whose passionate vocals are backed by hollow screams. It is a sound that could have easily found the band on Jade Tree Records in the late '90s. Transistor Indiana recorded an album for North Carolina-based indie metal label Tribunal Records, but it was not released after the band broke up. What remains is this four-song teaser, while certainly representing the young musicians' ability to write quality songs, does not live up to the band's intense and provocative live performances. Carroll, along with bassist Bruno, went on to play in American Minor, but the demise of Transistor Indiana left many people in the region wanting more.

Artist: Transistor Indiana
Album: songsforanactivelifestyle
Year: Early 2000s
For fans of: No Knife, Trail of Dead, Burning Airlines

DOWNLOAD: Transistor Indiana - songsforanactivelifestyle

DOWNLOAD: My 5 favorite albums with less than 30 downloads

This blog is nearly two years old, and in that time I've posted about 100 records that are available for free. Some of those records have been downloaded almost 400 times (Hasil Adkins's Peanut Butter Rock and Roll) while others have been only been received 12 hits. Some of those rarely accessed albums are ones I truly love, and it disappoints me that more people have not heard them, which was part of the goal of this blog.

I am giving some of these records a second chance. These five demos, full-lengths or discographies are my favorites that have been downloaded less than 30 times, which frankly needs to be a lot more. So here are some haikus to try to convince you to put these tunes in your digital collection.

1. The Beautiful Down - Ashes and Vanity / Of Angels and Of Men (27 downloads)

Redneck boys from Boone
In vein of At the Drive In
Christian sure can shred

2. Horns to the Matador - We Own This Town, Johnny! (15 downloads)

Big guitars play emo
Think Journey as indie rock
Broke up way too soon

3. Malicious Intent - The Sound of Diesel (29 downloads)

As thick as gravy
Lighthearted death metal punk
Changed my fucking life

4. The Dick Brothers - The Dick Brothers (16 downloads)

Iafrate bros
Listen to Hazel Dickens
Play great folk music

5. Steel Nation - Forever Wounded (13 downloads)

Nineties hardcore lives
Hard style like Biohazard
Ethan Mania

WATCH: Elvis Presley live in Charleston, 1976

On the anniversary of the King's death, what could be better than some lo-fi footage of Elvis performing in Charleston, West Virginia, in 1976.

WATCH: M Iafrate & the Priesthood - Song of Songs live in Morgantown, 2010

"Song of Songs" by M Iafrate is one of my top five favorite songs by a West Virginia artist. In fact, of the tens of thousands of songs I have in my iTunes, it is a top play. The track was first an acoustic number part of M Iafrate's impressive 2003 split with Sean Decker. A flawless full-band electronic version was later recorded for M Iafrate & the Priesthood's 2005 album O Happy Marriage. Here is the band performing the excellent song last year at 123 Pleasant Street in Morgantown where they opened for Bonnie 'Prince' Billy. The performance also features Iafrate's brother Andrew Iafrate on acoustic guitar. A former member of The Minus Tide, Killed at Camp and others, M Iafrate is still making great music, which you can hear on his bandcamp page. And much thanks to Iafrate for sporting the Viva La Revolución de Appalachia t-shirt on stage.