About
Blues, Skiffle, Calypso and Rockabilly with a creepy vaudeville twist - It’s music that makes people wanna shake their bones!
The gloriously off-kilter, roots-soaked world of Jo Carley & The Old Dry Skulls
At the heart of the project are multi-instrumentalists and songwriters Jo Carley and Tim Carley, who have spent years twisting, reshaping and breathing new life into the darker corners of roots, blues and folk music.
Adding a striking new colour to the Old Dry Skulls’ sonic palette is Stephane Spitz on baritone saxophone, whose deep, growling tones weave around the rhythms and melodies, adding weight, menace and a hypnotic new dimension. His playing brings a distinctly New Orleans-meets-Caribbean flavour to the album — melodies twisting and intertwining with the rhythms, creating something dark and danceable.
The Biography: -
Born from a love of early Blues and Roots music, Horror cinema, Folklore, and the dark romance of New Orleans mysticism, Jo Carley & The Old Dry Skulls have slowly built one of the most unique underground cult followings.
Their world is populated by zombies, demons, witch doctors, voodoo queens, ghosts, graveyard dances and midnight rituals all delivered with irresistible rhythm and dark theatrical flair. At the centre of the storm stands the mesmerising Jo Carley herself part gothic blues priestess, part travelling carnival storyteller, part possessed vaudeville chanteuse. Armed with washboard, mandolin, percussion and a voice that swings from sweet melancholy to wicked incantation, she leads audiences deep into the eerie creative world she and husband/songwriting partner Tim Carley created after abandoning conventional life in 2013 to pursue music full-time.
The story of the band feels almost mythological. After years busking around Britain and surviving on odd gigs and underground shows, Jo and Tim eventually settled in a beach bungalow on England's east coast where they built their own recording lair The Voodoo Shack. From there emerged a sound unlike anything else on the UK roots circuit: battered archtop guitars, rattling shoes, primitive kick drums, haunted saxophone lines, thumping double bass and voodoo rhythms inspired by everything from Cab Calloway and Victoria Spivey to Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Dr. John and the wild spirit of early rock 'n' roll.
Their early records immediately established them as outsiders in the best possible way. Albums such as Them Old Bones, Shake Them Rattlin' Bones and Voodoo Bones & Vaudeville Blues became cult underground favourites amongst psychobilly, blues, gothabilly and roots audiences. Their music sounded like a haunted 1930s Louisiana carnival colliding headfirst with a backstreet London punk club. Critics quickly fell under the spell. "Something wicked this way comes." Folkcast "A musical heist that robs you of the ordinary. and replaces it with exceptional" Folkwords "Spellbound by the performance and its originality." Blues Matters Magazine "Let your soul be taken by the voodoo." Louder Than War.
Jo Carley: Lead Vocals / Washboard / Mandolin / Percussion
Tim Carley: Battered Archtop Guitar / Kick / Rattlin’ Shoe / Backing Vocals
Stephane Spitz: Baritone Saxophone / Beat-up Double Bass
By the early 2020s the band had become a major cult attraction across the UK and Europe's underground circuit. Their reputation as a jaw-dropping live act saw them invited onto stages alongside, blues renegades and roots-rock outlaws. They appeared at the UK Blues Challenge, HRH Blues, The Great British Rock and Blues Festival, Upton Blues Festival, Ealing Blues Festival alongside acts like Dom Martin, Will Wilde, When Rivers Meet, Errol Linton, Catfish, James Oliver, Elles Bailey, Beaux Gris Gris and supported Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band and Hillbilly Moon Explosion during their UK tours. They also played the notorious Psychobilly Freakout Festival in London alongside acts such as Demented Are Go and Reverend Horton Heat. Then came the leap into the wider European alternative scene. In 2024 the band performed at Spain's prestigious Azkena Rock Festival sharing festival billing with giants such as Queens of the Stone Age, L7and Sheryl Crow. By 2025 the band were touring heavily across the UK, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands while continuing to expand their mythology with new recordings, singles and music videos ahead of a forthcoming 2026 album project.
What makes Jo Carley & The Old Dry Skulls so utterly addictive is that they never feel manufactured. Everything about them drips authenticity from the beat-up instruments and DIY ethic to the strange theatrical atmosphere surrounding every performance. They don't merely play songs they summon spirits. Live, audiences enter a strange underworld where skeleton-painted double basses pulse like beating hearts, rattling percussion sounds like chains in a crypt, and Jo Carley commands the stage like a gothic voodoo queen from some lost Mississippi fever dream. One reviewer described it as: "A sideshow where vaudeville, blues and skiffle conspire." Another called them: "The UK's first ever Old Timey Death Skiffle band."
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"Jo Carley & The Old Dry Skulls were a joy to behold. Rooted firmly in a bygone era when Voodoo and Black Magic were rife, the audience were all spellbound by the performance and its originality" - Adrian Blacklee - Blues Matters Magazine (UK)
"... a wonderfully enchanting show where magical songs were scattered." - thenextgig.nl (Netherlands)
"Tongue firmly-in-cheek they provide a full set of old school entertainment, a sideshow where vaudeville, blues and skiffle conspire to get their audiences to dance their asses off." – Hans Werkman / Here Comes The Flood (NL)
"... they've conjured up some delicious spells in their cauldron of verse, complete with wing of bat and tongue of snake" - Graham Munn / Blues In Britain Magazine
"Don’t fight it, let your soul be taken by the voodoo and soothed by these irresistible bluesy rockabilly rhythms. Turn to the dark-side, even if its just for half an hour or so…" - Neil Hodge / Louderthanwar
"With great lyrics and the combination of haunting ragtime blues they create a stupendously enjoyable jaunt into the darker recesses of voodoo, ... It's superb fun and a real pleasure to just indulge in its lyrics and music..." - Lee Powell / Vive Le Rock 2021
“...a steaming broth of cabaret, blues, ska, Vaudeville, voodoo and skiffle. Horror stories are the main course, with a side orders of sex, trouble, and all-night parties” - Hans Werksman - Here Comes The Flood (Netherlands)
“...riffs and rhythms, stomp and tap, crazy woman on vocals you find yourself waiting for her to cast a spell on you” - Alan Pearce - Blues Matters Magazine (UK)
"...medicine show huckster and old timey roots music. JCODS make deliciously devilish sounds. Something wicked coming this way. Highly recommended" - Folkcast (UK)
"That nailed it, good stuff. Left of field stomper. A wonderful fusion of trad, old timey, New Orleans Voodoo Queen" - Mike Harding / Mike Harding Folk Show (UK)
“There are dark warnings, powerful accusations, gritty observations and singular attitude... this is a musical heist that robs you of ordinary and replaces it with exceptional" - Folkwords (UK)
“Being scared has never been so much fun. Eyes closed, lights out, music on. Then tremble and shake and then laugh.” - Cultuurpakt (Belgium)
DISCOGRAPHY
2024 - ‘Live and Undead From Temperance’ - (LIVE ALBUM)
2022 - 'I'll Put My Voodoo On You' (ALBUM)
2020 - 'Voodoo Bones & Vaudeville Blues' (ALBUM)
2020 - 'The Zombie / The Jungle' (LOCKDOWN DIGITAL SINGLE)
2019 - 'Shake Them Rattlin' Bones' (ALBUM)
2017 - 'Them Old Bones' (ALBUM)
2014 - 'Rags and Bones' (EP)
