Today marks the eighth anniversary of the Heathen Apostles’ Gothic Americana style music video for their song “Fool’s Gold.” Released in 2015, this dark and cinematic video transports us back to the Depression era, where bank robbers are seeking refuge in a fortune teller’s lair after a heist. “Fool’s Gold” is undoubtedly one of their most popular songs, and the music video took it to another level. The video was directed by the band and the song was produced by Chopper Franklin. The video follows a gang of bank robbers as they seek refuge in a mysterious and otherworldly lair. The fate of these robbers is determined by Mather Louth’s fortune teller character, who has a magical connection to the spirits of the underworld.

The use of shadows, light, and symbolism further adds to the video’s atmospheric and eerie ambiance. The video shows us the consequences of greed and violence, as the robbers who seek to escape with their loot end up trapped in a cycle of fear. Louth’s fortune teller character represents a higher power that has the power to judge and punish, much like the spirits of the afterlife.

It’s a testament to the talent and creativity of the Heathen Apostles and their collaborators who brought it to life. The band continues to release new and exciting music that pushes the boundaries with their Gothic Americana style, so hold tight to see what they have in store in the future.

Directed by The Heathen Apostles.
Director of Photography, Still Photography: Lawrence Drayton
Band footage shot by Daniel DeLeon
Makeup: Alexia Petre
Wardrobe: Nicole Loretta of Paper Moon Vintage
Henna: Kelly Jurado
Locations: Marsak Manor (thanks Nathan & Nicole) and South Bay Customs
Fool’s Gold written by Louth/Franklin, produced & mixed by Chopper Franklin at the Devil’s Doghouse, Echo Park, Ca.

© 2015 Ratchet Blade Records

The Gothic Western gallery show “Dead End Trail”  is opening June 3rd 6-10 PM at Copro Nason Gallery in Santa Monica, California. It will contain new paintings by Sean Cheetham, Kate Zambrano, Sonya Palencia and Jeff Nentrup. The Gothic Western gallery will feature two extraordinary oil paintings of Mather Louth and Chopper Franklin of the Gothic Western band the Heathen Apostles that was painted by Sean Cheetham. The title of the Mather painting is “There in the Ground, My Buried Heart”, and the title of the Chopper painting is “All of our Vows, in Death Did Part”, both lines from the Heathen Apostle’s song “Deadly Nightshade”.

Mather Louth and Chopper Franklin

Sean Cheetham’s paintings have been included in numerous significant exhibitions internationally including the National Portrait Gallery in London. He has a devoted following of collectors and art students that are inspired by his work and distinctive technique. Cheetham’s selection of subjects typically in familiar urban scenes contributes a truthful and often raw spirit that makes his work distinctive and a contemporary testimony of our time.

Kate Zambrano is a self-taught artist living in California. She was born in Texas, but decided to leave at age seventeen to begin a semi-nomadic lifestyle. She enrolled in college to study psychology, but after a while, she realized that she was more into the subject than pursuing an actual career in the field.

Sonya Palencia, is a painter, illustrator, sculptor and woodcarver, whose work celebrates nature and the mystical with the romantic aesthetics of the old world. As a child, Sonya began creating art and studying the nearby wilderness, historical landmarks, and the extraordinary past of her native California.

As a Southern California native, Jeffrey Nentrup developed a love for art and nature at a young age. After years of painting digitally in the high-octane commercial art ranks and working on marquee projects for A-list clients (Dreamworks, Warner Bros., Universal, Sony, Disney, Paramount, NASA) and a top cover artist who’s artwork has been featured on dozens of novels worldwide, Jeff has returned to the immediacy of his first love, oil painting.

The Rustic Stomp, Dorset’s finest Roots Festival is bringing together a plethora of local, national and international artists to give you the finest bluegrass, gothic western hoedown, blues, swamp stomp, country-based festival, with tractors, that money can buy. Three days of music and merriment are all wrapped within the Rustic aesthetic. This year’s Rustic Stomp will also include historic vehicles and a Well Bean hub within the festival arena.This year’s festival brings together three of the Crawdaddy festival brands under one roof, as it were. The Wonky Donk stage will feature the best of hoedown, country and hillbilly music. The Dark Holler stage takes a slightly, well, darker comedic look at life and the Organford stage is a more accessible, easy listening venue.

The event opens up on a ticketed event headlined by local foot-stompers The Jimmy Hillbillies throwing down their Dorset Hoedown for the masses. Friday night features the mighty Frank from Blue Velvet from Hastings and taking the Roots scene by storm, local skiffle kings Quinn’s Quinney, as well as Burg and the Vagabond Choir and festival favourites The Curst Sons. Saturday has a real heavy weight feel to it with international superstars the Heathen Apostles featuring ex-Cramps member Chopper Franklin, headlining the event. Texas Swing outfit the Bootheel Playboys, Dead Horse Bay, a plethora of local artists on the Dungaville Stage and London’s finest banjo player and builder Flatfoot Johnny. Sunday takes a stronger turn towards the genre of Country with the amazing Sarah Vista headlining.

The history of the Rustic Stomp goes back over 10 years, when Hawkeye Houlihan and some friends put on a little festival at the Donkey Sanctuary at Home Farm, Lytchet. The aim then was to help rescue donkeys by putting on some great rustic music that people would love. Well, the donkeys are rescued now and the festival is growing, its aim to put the Dorset ‘roots’ scene on the map. The festival is also looking to grow and has moved to a new, more accessible site at Pike’s Farm, Organford. “Each year we are aiming to increase the accessibility of this type of music to a wider audience and promote the local artists that provide the backbone to the scene, as well as bring in some top-ranking national and international stars” says Hawkeye.

The Rustic Stomp is on from the evening of Thursday 13th July until Sunday 16th July and takes place at Pikes Farm, Organford, Dorset. Weekend tickets are £86.40, day tickets from £27.50.

10 years ago today the Heathen Apostles put out their first music video, The Reckoning. The band filmed the Western Goth music video before they played their first show, when the Heathen Apostles were just the OG trio of Mather Louth, Chopper Franklin and Thomas Lorioux. It’s the first thing they put out so this is pretty much the 10th anniversary of the band, they’ve really been hard at it non-stop. Violinist Luis Mascaro joined just after this, they’ve put out 6 albums, several EPs and singles, toured Europe several times and are heading to the UK in July. While Corporate Music has been conglomerating (and cannibalizing) itself, they’ve managed to fly under the radar, doin’ their thing (which the band admits ain’t for everybody). Thanks to all past band members, and all that have supported us; whether it’s one download, or buying every release and piece of merch the Heathen Apostles have had for sale. Click HERE to watch The Reckoning video.

Click HERE to purchase the CD, to purchase it on iTunes click HERE, for Amazon click HERE.
Directed by the Heathen Apostles
Featuring Edward Colver as the Demonic Preacher.
Production assistance by Monica Blair and Thai Knight. Special thanks to Karin Swinney.

The Reckoning written by Louth/Franklin
Produced & mixed by Chopper Franklin at the Devil’s Doghouse, Echo Park, Ca.
© 2013 Ratchet Blade Records

The Heathen Apostles UK tour will begin in July of 2023, it will be their first one of the United Kingdom. The 18 date swing will be built around their appearance at the Rustic Stomp Festival in Dorset, Poole on 15 July and will also feature a video shoot for their next single from their current release Bloodgrass Vol. 3 & 4. There are some dates that are still open or unconfirmed, you can get booking information from Hawkeye Houlihan at hawkeyesbanjo (at) hotmail.com.

Heathen Apostles UK tour:

Thurs 13th July – Cobblestones, Bridgewater, UK

Fri 14th July – The Treehouse, Frome, UK

Sat 15th July – Rustic Stomp, Dorset, UK

Sun 16th July – Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth, UK

Mon 17th July – video shoot

Tues 18th July – The Cellar Bar, Bournemouth, UK

Wed 19th July – Lexington, London, UK

Thurs 20th July – The Reindeer, Norwich, UK

Fri 21st July – Facebar, Reading, UK

Sat 22nd July – Endorset Festival, UK 2023 (afternoon set)

Sat 22nd July – Tap & Grape, Poole, UK (evening set)

Sun 23rd July – Christchurch Festival, Christchurch, UK

Mon 24th July – The Six Six Bar, Cambridge, UK

Tue 25th July – The Sunflower Lounge, Birmingham, UK

Wed 26th July – The Anchor Inn Wingham, Canterbury, UK

Thurs 27th July – Prince Albert, Brighton, UK

Fri 28th July – The Plough, Torrington, UK

Sat 29th July – The Cavern, Exeter, UK

Sun 30th July – The Pig, Hastings, UK

“If there is such a thing in the current fringe roots genre as a supergroup, it would certainly be the Los Angeles-based dark roots and gothic country band Heathen Apostles, who includes ex-members of Radio Noir (Mather Louth), The Cramps (Chopper Franklin), Kings of Nuthin’ (Thomas Lorioux), and Christian Death (Stevyn Grey) in its ranks. That is one hell of a lineup.” – No Depression Magazine

The Goodbye Family has made the Vulture Magazine Top Ten list of the best animated series of 2022. The Gothic Western series was created by Lorin Morgan-Richards and features a theme song, as well as other music, from the Heathen Apostles. Heathen member Chopper Franklin also does the score and SFX, and he and vocalist Mather Louth are part of the show’s cast.

Willing to squash and stretch the television and streaming mediums to their limits, the best animated television of 2022 relishes in anticipation and payoff. Returning series such as Harley Quinn and The Owl House cater to their respective loyal fan bases by emphasizing strong character writing and earned emotional heft — even when it’s nestled in humor. A handful of new shows, including The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder and The Boys Presents: Diabolical, leverage the goodwill that came from titles that preceded them to craft stories and art that look radically different from what came before but still feel natural in context. A few debuts break new animated ground entirely, delivering to us the digital worlds of Pantheon and the fantasy realms of The Legend of Vox Machina for our eyeballs to feast on. Now that we’ve presented the year’s top animated films and (specifically, separately) its top anime series, here are the animated TV shows we couldn’t stop watching this year.

10. The Goodbye Family

The Goodbye Family is pretty different from every other show on this list. It’s a webtoon that looks as if it was made with MS Paint and centers a family of undertakers trying to eke out a living in a pen-scratched, gothic take on the Old West that’s fleshed out by rootsy Americana music and offbeat humor. Aside from the voices and music, it’s almost entirely made by creator Lorin Morgan-Richards, who based it off his “Weird West” comic of the same name. The Goodbye Family is extremely lo-fi but also unnervingly fun thanks to how it leans into the characters’ peculiarities and morbid humor. In one scene from the episode “The Seedy Snare,” matriarch Pyridine rattles off the Goodbyes’ list of payment options — “We take Gravepal, Renmo, and Coffin Bell wires, although crypt currency … I’m not sure about that one” — as another member of the family cheerily mops blood off the floor. The Goodbye Family is not for everyone, but it just might be for you, if you let it.

The Heathen Apostles will be returning to Bar Sinister for a Halloween show on Saturday October 29th. Bar Sinister is the premiere goth club is Los Angeles, located at 652 N. Cherokee Ave, Hollywood, just south of Hollywood Blvd.

The band will feature Pat Muzingo on drums, as well as other special guests that night. It is also the first Heathen Apostles US show since the release of their latest album Bloodgrass Vol. 3 & 4, out now on Ratchet Blade Records. You can check out the album HERE.

Bloodgrass Vol. 3 & 4 tracklist
1. Bad Patch
2. Careful What You Pray For
3. Black Hawk
4. Demi Monde
5. Tall Rider
6. Roots Run Deep
7. Into The Wild
8. No Peace
9. Solitary
10. Shadow of the Crows