Album Review: Roky Erickson and Okkervil River - True Love Cast Out All Evil

Roky Erickson is one of popular music’s most desolate figures – drug use, mental illness, and state abuse managed to derail a promising career and leave the ‘60s psychedelic icon in tatters for decades. Erickson came from Dallas, Texas, an unlikely place for a ‘60s garage/psychedelic musician to come from, which also meant that when he was targeted by intolerant police and subsequently arrested for the possession of one joint. He was thrown in the Hospital for the Criminally Insane (he had a history of schizophrenia) and subjected to three and a half years of electroshock therapy, and drug treatment. The result of all demolished Erickson’s personality. However he has always been critically well-regarded for his work with his band 13 Floor Elevators, and his reputation was revived with the recent documentary You’re Going to Miss Me (the title of the Elevators’ most well-known song). Texan band Okkervil River would have bneen well aware of the mythology surrounding Erickson as a result – and the two bands teamed up to give Erickson a powerful and cathartic chance to make-up for decades of suffering.

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