hoodoo

Hoodoo is an American folk magic tradition. Hoodoo is not a religion but a tradition of magical folk customs. The most popular hoodoo charm is a mojo.  Hoodoo is usually associated with African American culture. It’s believed that slaves carried their superstitions to the Americas and combined them with Christianity, European superstitions, and Indian medicine and folklore. Whites practiced hoodoo, too, but often called it conjure, medicine, pow wow, doctoring, or witching.

Hoodoo is still very much alive. It’s practiced in rural Southern communities, and the Appalachia’s very much unchanged. Nearly every large city has a botanicals or curio shop to cater to hoodoo practitioners.

I conjure thee, sword, sabre or knife, that mightest injure or harm me, by the priest of all prayers, who had gone into the temple at Jerusalem, and said: An edged sword shall pierce your soul that you may not injure me, who am a child of god.
-- John George Hoffman in Pow-Wows, published in 1820.

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Latest blogosphere posts tagged “hoodoo”

 

• HooDoo Brewing Happenings for American Craft Beer Week

  
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  (Fairbanks, AK) – Next week is American Craft Beer Week and we have some great things planned.  Highlighting the week is the…
  1 week ago

• Ever seen a hoodoo?

  
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  Bryce Canyon has the highest concentration of hoodoos in the world. Modern day geologists say these are sandstone structures created by weather and water erosion. Here is the geology of hoodoos from the Bryce Canyon National park webpage . Paiute Indian folklore refers to hoodoos as “The Legend People”. ...
  1 week ago

• 3632. “Leilani (Extended)” by The Hoodoo Gurus

  
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  Originally 1982 single and video: Back when they were “Le Hoodoo Gurus.” Wow they look different and this version sounds different. Here’s the version I know and love . The song really developed between ’82 and its released on Stoneage Romeos . I think the wikipedia entry gets the plot of the song ...
  2 weeks ago

• 3631. “(Let’s All) Turn On” by The Hoodoo Gurus

  
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  Album cover video: “(Let’s All) Turn On” is the Hoodoo Gurus’ musical manifesto. They list a bunch of their influences at a very fast pace and then just rock out. This track also features a great guitar hook that sound so meaty its like its being played with a paint can. You will want to sing along, if ...
  2 weeks ago

• Hoodoo Man - Lightnin Slim & Lazy Lester

  
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  2 weeks ago

• 3630. “I Want You Back” by The Hoodoo Gurus

  
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  Fan video: If I were going to make a list of “best songs from the 80′s,” this song would be one of the first picks for that list. The Hoodoo Gurus’ debut album , Stoneage Romeos , was released in 1984 and got a ton of airplay on WXCI during my senior year in high school. I bought the album on cassette ...
  2 weeks ago

• 3629. “Like Wow-Wipeout!” by The Hoodoo Gurus

  
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  Official video: Man, their videos really don’t do them any favors. Its like they’re trying to make them fan magazine fodder. Maybe it was meant to be funny in 1985, but I don’t know man. Forget the video (if you can) because “Like Wow – Wipeout!” is a fucking fantastic song in the classic Hoodoo ...
  2 weeks ago

• 3628. “Death Defying” by The Hoodoo Gurus

  
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  Official video: You know, I never saw any of these videos until now and I’m surprised at how much they were packaging the Hoodoo Gurus at rock stars on this album. Maybe I’d only seen pictures of them way back when, but I always thought of them as a down and dirty bar-band looking group, but the videos I’m ...
  2 weeks ago

• 3627. “Bittersweet” by The Hoodoo Gurus

  
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  Official video: Dave Faulkner used to look like he never washed his hair, but in this video his hair is gorgeous – no insult. The Hoodoo Gurus released Mars Needs Guitars in 1985 (just as I was starting college) and three of the songs from that album found their way onto one of the first mix tapes I made as ...
  2 weeks ago

• 3626. “Come Anytime” by The Hoodoo Gurus

  
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  Official Video: “Come Anytime” was The Hoodoo Gurus’ biggest American hit . It was released as the first single off their 1989 Magna Cum Louder album . In my life, I had just graduated college (and left WRBC) but had not quite started grad school (and started working for KTUH) when this album was ...
  2 weeks ago

• LP Review - The Inner Sanctum by The Cosmic Dead

  
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  Having previously been reviewed on Heavy Planet back in 2011 as a " New Band To Burn One To " for their self titled album, there was no way I was going to let The Cosmic Deads latest psychedelic beast "Inner Sanctum" slip through our fingers. Born in the tough, cold city of Glasgow, Scotland, UK; The Cosmic Dead drop ...
  3 weeks ago

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