Bloodshot Bill – Keep Movin’ On

SinglesGoingSteady#07: Bloodshot Bill – Keep Movin’ On [Pig Baby Records; 2018]

It’s a tough task to pick just one 7” from Bloodshot Bill’s impressive catalog of records, which began building in 2001, but someone has to take on this challenge. In case you don’t know, Bloodshot Bill is a one-man band from Montréal, Canada. He simultaneously plays guitar, bass drum, and hi-hat, although he sometimes performs with fellow musicians.

SinglesGoingSteady#07 is Keep Movin’ On backed with You Want It. It’s Bloodshot Bill’s 16th (I think) solo 7”. In addition, he has released about the same number of 7”-splits with other artists and more than 20 albums. A true feat of endurance.

Regarding terminology – just to get a grip on what we’re listening to here. It’s most appropriate to label much of Bill’s production as “rockabilly”. At first glance, rockabilly seems to be a fairly limited space with few possibilities for variation. But handled correctly, rockabilly can offer a platform for musical excursions in many different directions with the character retained. And it is precisely this navigational ability that Bloodshot Bill possesses, which makes his songs unique and up-to-date instead of being inserted into a mainstream neo-rockabilly furrow, just like this single in a limited edition of 700 copies showcases. His extraordinary voice resources are the icing on the cake. Can’t help but think of a semi-domesticated Hasil Adkins…

Bloodshot Bill explains to PopDiggers that the point of Keep Moving On is in the title: Keep moving on! No matter what kinds shit comes your way, keep going forward/don’t look back/don’t dwell on things that are bringing you down – just keep moving on! The artwork by Pat Broderick is a nod to a Hank Snow songbook cover I really thought looked cool. Hank Snow had a song called I’m Movin’ On, so it seemed like a good idea to pair with my Keep Movin’ On.

Rockabilly is a labelling which Bloodshot Bill doesn’t mind concerning Keep Movin’ On. Regarding the equally enjoyable B-side, You Want It, he considers it a little more out there, but still somehow rooted in a 50s/60s sound. The curious guitar sound on You Want It comes from the way the guitar is tuned. “Don’t ask me what tuning – cause I dunno! I’m not sure exactly which particular artists I was listening to when this was recorded, but I definitely hear some Link Wray influence on the guitar.”

It all came to fruition when Pig Baby Records offered to do a single with me, so this was what I had around at that time. Unfortunately, they’ve since lost everything in the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires…

Finally, it must be mentioned that Bloodshot Bill has a string of excellent seven inch collaborations with other luminaries, like Deke Dickerson (Bad Biscuit from The Bad Biscuit EP, 2019), Mark Lee Allen (Bitter Sweet, 2020) and Shannon Shaw from Hunx And His Punx and Shannon And The Clams (Honey Time, 2016). And don’t forget Bloodshot Bill’s latest album So Fed Up! (taster: Talk To You.)

Thanks to Bloodshot Bill for providing information on this one.

Previous posts in this series:

SinglesGoingSteady#01: Randells – Seven Inch

SinglesGoingSteady#02: The Fevers – Don’t Tell Me It’s Wrong

SinglesGoingSteady#03: Thee Cha Cha Chas – Rock’n’Roll Till I’m Dead

SinglesGoingSteady#04: The Gories – Cry Girl

SinglesGoingSteady#05: The Bobbyteens – I Wanna Go Home

SinglesGoingSteady#06: The Manikins – Spend The Night Alone