About Louis Garou

Raised in the shadows of Appalachia, singer/songwriter/guitarist Louis Garou has practiced the Craft for over fifty years while also conjuring his Dark Americana music. A farmer and poet, Garou weaves tales of Goddesses, Love and Death, revenge, and dark nights of the soul into music that blends folk, rural blues and backwoods bardic traditions.

In such songs as “Rise Up Lilith,” “Queen of Wolves” and “Pleasure in the Pain,” he sings of people haunted and alone . . . of people best left alone, and beings who are not quite . . . people.

Rick de Yampert, former rock music writer for the Tennessean in Nashville and former arts and pop culture writer for Wildhunt.org, says of Garou: “As poet Khalil Gibran, mystic philosopher Alan Watts and others say — light and dark must always dance together. But too often people dread dancing in, or even near, the shadows. Fortunately we have Louis Garou, that Dark Americana bard, who dares to peek . . . no, to stare intensely into the abyss and sing about what he has seen . . . the abyss where the wolves and obsessive passions of our human psyches reside, and where the necessary shadows of the Goddesses and Gods beckon to us, too.

“Now she’s gettin’ no rest, she failed the pregnancy test.
How’s she gonna care for a little child?
She can barely feed herself, No food’s left on the shelf.
Frustration makes her rage and scream and cry.”

Written to add another step to the ladder of outrage that is The Red Album: Pagan Voices for Reproductive Rights, Louis’s dark track is the story of a young woman suffocated by her pregnancy and desperation, with no legal way out of having her life cruelly stolen… Because of a lack of choice… Because her bodily autonomy was legislated out of existence. Like many other impoverished women, she chose death rather than a life of slavery to biology. There are no winners in this race.

An excellent interview with Louis was published on The Wild Hunt, which you can read here. In this video, Mama Gina chatted with Louis about the creative process–well worth watching! He also performs regularly at pagan festivals and events.

Louis Garou on the web

Louis’s blog posts:

A Tragic Tale: When Choice is Gone

“She’s getting no rest, she just failed her pregnancy test. How’s she gonna care for a little child? She can barely feed herself, no food’s left on the shelf. Frustration makes her rage and scream and cry.” I wrote Nothing Holy but the Blood for The Red Album: Pagan Voices for...

Ain’t Dead Yet

“March me up a mountain. Push me off the edge I’d rather die flyin’ Than to ever leave this ridge…” I was going to write about Nothing Holy but the Blood, my contribution to the upcoming compilation, The Red Album. Instead I chose to write about aging and starting over...

Eternal Love

In this, the Dark time of the year, I chose to write about something we all will face. As I age, I contemplate that day when Lady Death will stretch out Her hands to me. Not the skeletal hands of crude illustrations from the Middle Ages, but the warm, calloused...
dark goddess pagan

Crow Whispers, a Dark Vision

Originally, I was going to write about my song “Dread Persephone,” but  since Spring has passed I decided, instead, to write about a much darker vision, the awakening of the Dark Mother. Crow Whispers is one of two pieces I wrote, inspired by an apocalyptic dream. I awoke at 3...
Daughter of Lilith

Daughter of Lilith

I believe many of us are Daughters, yes, and Sons of Lilith. She is the Dark Mother in my pantheon. She is the archetype and personification of everything I believe… She is fierce, brutal, and brutally honest. She has neither the time nor the  patience for lies or deception. She...

Witch in the Holler

Louis Garou is the newest addition to the Pagan Song blogging team. In this post, he shares his insights into songwriting in the Pagan Music genre, and gives the inside story of three of his songs: Rise up Lilith, Not this Time and My Other Side. Welcome, Louis! I am...