| Whiskey for the Holy Ghost | |
| Type: | Album |
| Artist: | Mark Lanegan |
| Cover: | Mark_Lanegan_Whiskey_for_the_Holy_Ghost.jpg |
| Released: | January 18, 1994 |
| Recorded: | 1991–1993 |
| Studio: | Ironwood, Reciprocal, & Steve Lawson Studios, Seattle, WA, & Messina Music, NYC |
| Genre: | Country blues |
| Length: | 49:22 |
| Label: | Sub Pop |
| Producer: | Mike Johnson & Mark Lanegan |
| Prev Title: | The Winding Sheet |
| Prev Year: | 1990 |
| Next Title: | Scraps at Midnight |
| Next Year: | 1998 |
Whiskey for the Holy Ghost is the second solo album by former Screaming Trees vocalist Mark Lanegan. The album builds upon the roots music foundation that Lanegan had established with his debut The Winding Sheet.
The recording was reportedly a frustrating affair for Lanegan; at one point the singer had to be physically prevented from throwing the master tapes into a river by producer Jack Endino. In his 2017 book I Am the Wolf: Lyrics and Writings, the singer recalls:
In an interview on WTF with Marc Maron, Lanegan highlighted the making of Whiskey for the Holy Ghost as an instance in his life where his drug use had a positive effect artistically: "Around the time I did my second solo record I decided to smoke weed, and it made me do some stuff that I never had thought about doing – but of course it turned on me, like all drugs."[1] Lyrically, Lanegan continues to delve into the darker side of the human experience on songs like "Borracho" and the Biblical "Pendulum." ("Jesus Christ been here and gone, what a painful price to pay.") In his book I Am the Wolf, Lanegan states that Van Morrison and writer Cormac McCarthy sparked his imagination for the imagery on the album, with Morrison being a direct influence on "Carnival," and admits that "Pendulum" started "as a joke designed to make my musical partner Mike Johnson laugh."
Dan Peters of Mudhoney plays drums on "Borracho" and "House A Home." "House A Home" was released as a single with an accompanying video. "The River Rise" was used in the 1996 grunge documentary Hype!, where it accompanied a montage filmed at the vigil following Kurt Cobain's death.
Mark Deming of AllMusic writes, "The songs are more literate and better realized than on the debut, the arrangements are subtle and supportive (often eschewing electric guitars for keyboards and acoustic instruments), and Lanegan's voice, bathed in bourbon and nicotine, transforms the deep sorrow of the country blues (a clear inspiration for this music) into something new, compelling, and entirely his own."