P.W. Long

Preston Wright Long III (aka Preston Cleveland) is an American musician, journalist and documentary filmmaker.

He is best known as lead singer and guitar player for the groups Wig, Mule and P.W. Long's Reelfoot; most of his recorded work has been released and/or distributed by Touch and Go Records. Long has released four solo albums; slice-of-life narratives typically delivered as hard rock with country music flourishes. Critic Zac Johnson favorably compares Long's music to iconic Johnny Cash, writing, "both share the same kind of working-class, tough-guy, busted-knuckle, rattlesnake-eyed persona."

P.W. Long, who is particularly discreet with personal details, appears to have been raised in Las Vegas, Nevada; Ypsilanti, Michigan (see Mule's "Obion," and its reference to an "Ypsilanti Man"); and for periods in Virginia. He was stationed in Norfolk while serving in the US Navy's Atlantic Fleet. He eventually wound up in Detroit. Purported to be the brother of the frontman of The Laughing Hyenas but this is untrue.

His earliest work was with the band Wig, and it is his voice that you hear on the Lying Next to You record. Sometime in the early 1990s, Long began a side project with the Laughing Hyenas' rhythm section, Kevin Munro and Jim Kimball. They put together a concoction of field hollers, backwoods legends, hellbilly canon and mixed it with a semi-punk, semi-metallic musical assault that was best described as northern redneck, but intelligent, clamor.

Calling themselves Mule, they released a single in 1991 or 1992 containing the song Tennessee Hustler. Their first self-titled album debuted shortly thereafter on Touch and Go Records sub-label, "Quarterstick", and was recorded by Nirvana recording engineer Steve Albini (though credited in the liner notes to a fictitious Lenard Johns).

While it had the raucousness of the Hyenas, and certain punk and alternative sensibilities, Mule was quite different. The album opened with P.W. shouting "We left town to the sound of buckshot rain" on Mississippi Breaks.

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Wikipedia