Dorthia Cottrell Shares 'Take Up Serpents' From Forthcoming Album 'Death Folk Country'

Renowned vocalist and songwriter Dorthia Cottrell has released her new single, "Take Up Serpents".

Ripe with religious imagery, the track invokes the spirit of the old Pentacostal churches of the American South, made famous for their handling of venomous snakes as a show of faith. The title Take Up Serpents comes from bible verse, Mark 16:18. 'They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.'

Cottrell explains, "Even though I don't consider myself a religious person, I do believe that there are forces beyond current human understanding. I think we interact with those forces and they have an effect on us. This verse always stood out to me; I think love and faith in the unseen are deeply connected. I always thought this verse perfectly described the kind of omnipotent power that Love is, and how it can inspire such a faith and devotion that can reframe reality."

Across both her solo work and as the vocalist of Windhand, Cottrell envisions her music as both a document of love and a reconciliation with death. On her forthcoming album, Death Folk Country, Cottrell wards off death through creation - the most distilled form of love. The spirit of love passed on through her words will be the ultimate reward for earthly suffering. Cottrell's enigmatic presence guides listeners down a path of introspection - Death Folk Country's massive scope touches upon tales of love, loss, and so much more.

Cottrell was raised in rural King George, Virginia, a town with less than 5,000 inhabitants. Forests and tall-grass fields stretched before her. Beauty and boredom soared. That vague melancholy and memory of the American South is smudged all over Cottrell's music. Cottrell grew up a goth, an outcast in a small town - a time and place she revisits throughout Death Folk Country.

"This album to me is about painting a picture of a place where my heart lives," Cottrell explains. The title Death Folk Country is partly me describing a genre that fits the sound - but it's also meant to be taken as a Naming, a coronation of the world inside me. Death Folk Country is the music and also the land where the music takes place, and the two have always been inextricable from each other."

Cottrell's voice, a soaring alto, fills the emptiest of canyons. Singing in echoing harmony with itself, her voice is a kind of prophecy, bringing home to the present thoughts and realizations from the future, even as Cottrell buries herself in remembrance of the past. Death Folk Country takes these nostalgic ideas of "home" and confronts them with their own imperfections and darkness.

The album sees its release April 21 via Relapse Records, her first for the label and follow up to her highly acclaimed, 2015 S/T solo debut. All songs on Death Folk Country were written / played by Dorthia Cottrell and recorded / produced by Jon K. and Cottrell at SANS Studios in Richmond, Virginia. She's confirmed an album release show in D.C. on April 20th at Black Cat - for more info go here.

Photo by Richard Howard

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