This ‘Alabama Astronaut’ went to church for the snakes. He stayed for the music. - al.com

2022-09-24 10:39:53 By : Mr. Jenson Yang

Abe Partridge’s very first visit to a serpent-handling church exposed him to something that changed his outlook entirely. And it wasn’t the snakes.

It was the music. Unknown songs, wrapped up in a completely unexpected surge of primal roots-rock, an eruption of what another visitor once famously described as “a cross between Salvation Army and acid rock.”

“You don’t think the lady that doesn’t wear makeup and has her hair rolled up on the top of her head up in a bun and never cuts her hair and wears a dress down to her feet, you don’t think that she’s about to get up on a Hammond organ and absolutely slay it,” said Partridge. “But they do. And that guy with the overalls that carries a big black leather-bound Bible and walks into the back of church, you don’t think he’s about to go out and lay out a Telecaster better than anybody than you’ve seen in your life, but I’ve seen it go down like that.”

That first taste was addictive, and now Partridge and collaborator Ferrill Gibbs are ready to share the feeling with the world in a new podcast being released Wednesday, Sept. 14 via AlabamaAstronaut.com and other outlets. The title, “Alabama Astronaut,” gives a good sense of Partridge as a stranger in a strange land, and that’s something he’s earned. A former independent Baptist preacher who went into the military after a crisis of faith, he’s now most widely known as an artist, primarily a painter, and as a songwriter with a famously quirky point of view.

He had no idea that his first visit to a snake-handling church would lead to an obsession, let alone a podcast, plans for multiple albums, a book of paintings and an art exhibition.

At top: A detail from one of Abe Partridge's paintings inspired by his visits to snake-handling churches. Lower left: Partridge. Lower right: "Alabama Astronaut" podcast host Ferrill GibbsAlabamaAstronaut.com

“At first I just kind of thought that it was a little bit crazy,” he said. “What was so captivating with it, honestly, if it wouldn’t have been for the music, I probably would have went that first weekend and never would have went back. I went the first weekend and it wasn’t the church service or anything, it was that I heard these songs. That made me want to start going back.”

Early on in “Alabama Astronaut,” Gibbs refers to their project as “A Lomaxian quest to document a set of songs that have to this point never before been properly documented.”

“I want to be around art that is authentic, real and moving,” Partridge responds. “This is what I’ve found that to me is the most authentic, real and moving art that I’ve ever seen.”

In every episode of “Alabama Astronaut” you’ll hear the narrator proclaim, “This is not a podcast about religion.” It’s a mantra that became a running joke for some of the people around the project, Gibbs and Partridge said. It continues: “This is not a podcast about the five signs of Mark 16, or of handling snakes, drinking harmful substances or any other acts of great faith. This is a podcast about songs.”

And yet, it did start with religion.

“In 2006 I was pastoring in Middlesboro, Ky.,” Partridge tells Gibbs in the first episode. “I was pastoring an independent fundamental Baptist church there. I told God before I left that I would go to every house in that city, before I left. I did. I went to every house there passing out gospel literature and literature for the church. I came across this guy when I was there and his name was Jamie Coots. I told him, I said, ‘I’m Abe Partridge, I pastor up here at this Bright Star Baptist Church here in Middlesboro. We’d love to have you come.’ He said, ‘Well, I pastor the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name over here, and we’re one of the largest snake-handling congregations in Kentucky.’ And that was the first time in my life, I guess, that I really knew of snake-handling outside of maybe some jokes … In those days I was not really concerned about anybody else’s religious perspective, I was really only concerned about my own.”

They had a long conversation. “I was just absolutely amazed,” Partridge says. “He talked about it in a way which it was not insane. And him talking about it in a way where it was not insane, and me thinking it couldn’t be anything but insanity, it was just something that struck me. The main thing I took away from that conversation was just how genuinely friendly that this guy was. I walked away from my conversation with him thinking, that guy seemed like a Christian to me. And I pastored a Baptist church for a long time, I was a Baptist preacher for nine years, and I only met a handful of Christians in all my days.”

It’s a strong statement, but it illustrates Partridge’s distinctive viewpoint on faith. He was in crisis when he spoke to Coots. He described it as “the most agony I’ve ever experienced in my life.” He knew he wasn’t cut out to be a preacher. He knew he was playing a role. He knew that “to quit meant that I was going to have to burn bridges with everyone that I knew and that I would be forsaken by the small, marginalized sect of Christianity that I was involved with.”

Abe Partridge, right, speaks with Chris Wolford, preacher at House of the Lord Jesus in West Virginia. In the "Alabama Astronaut" podcast, Partridge tells the story of how Wolford once called him out from the pulpit, "causing Abe to recount his own days as a pastor in the mountains of East Kentucky."AlabamaAstronaut.com

He quit in 2007 and went into the military; he’s still in the reserve. More recently he’s made a name for himself as a songwriter and a folk artist, primarily a painter. Along the way, Jamie Coots was featured in the National Geographic Channel’s “Snake Salvation” reality show, exposure that made his death an event of widespread interest in 2014.

News of Coots’ death – from a snake bite received during a service – had an impact on Partridge. But it took a bigger turn of events to turn his interest into action: The COVID-19 pandemic, which shut down his career as a touring performer. He began visiting churches led by Coots’ son Cody Coots and others. He began painting portraits of the people within the churches, working toward an art book. And that’s where he began to rope Gibbs in: He asked him to write a foreword for the book.

“It would be a perfect addition to any hip coffee table in Alabama,” said Gibbs of the book, which is still in the works. (Partridge said he’s supposed to exhibit paintings in Mobile early next year, and hopes to publish at that time.)

A painting by Abe Partridge of pastor Dewey Chafin.AlabamaAstronaut.com

When Partridge decided to plunge into the music, he wanted Gibbs to collaborate. Gibbs, a musician from Mobile who was living in Texas, was a friend with experience in podcasting. Nowadays he is the podcast director for KBTX-TV3 in College Station, but at the time he was “terribly out of work” and dubious about the subject of Partridge’s fascination.

But Partridge’s enthusiasm, and the subject matter itself, drew him in. Though he has accompanied Partridge on some of his expeditions, he essentially became Ground Control for his astronaut partner. Much of the podcast consists of conversations between the two, with Partridge describing his experiences on the road to an interviewer who’s alternately baffled and amazed, skeptical and intrigued.

The chemistry works: Partridge is willing to go wherever the quest takes him -- geographically, culturally, philosophically. Gibbs, the one editing hundreds of hours of material into manageable episodes, stays tethered. He asks questions, searches for the narrative, tries to put things in context. They crack each other up. A lot. And then there’s the music.

Abe Partridge, right, with Jimmy Morrow, founder and preacher of Edwina Church of God in Jesus' Name.AlabamaAstronaut.com

It runs through the series, a magma-like flow of what sometimes sounds like primal surf-rock, sometimes the backdrop to lyrics, sometimes to fire-and-brimstone preaching.

There are albums to go along with the podcast, though release plans are still taking shape. Some are basically field recordings, and Partridge said he hopes to release a compilation album. Some, like a duo recording of Cody Coots and his wife Cassy, are studio albums showcasing particular people or churches.

Partridge said that when scientists and reality shows and authors and other visitors have ventured into these churches, the music has always been peripheral. He said it deserves to be catalogued and properly respected as a deep, unique vein of Americana.

“We focused on the songs that mention the fulfillment of what they call the five signs of Mark Chapter 16,” said Partridge. “Because this is the only Christian sect on the face of the Earth that I’m aware of that believes in the literal interpretation of the five signs of Mark 16.”

“Any Pentecostal church you can hear songs and they may reference speaking in tongues, casting out devils, and healing the sick with the laying on of hands,” said Partridge. But the part about handling serpents, the part about consuming harmful substances unharmed, nobody else dwells on those. “Any time I hear a song and it contains references to those two parts … that’s unique,” said Partridge.

Abe Partridge and Ferrill Gibbs say they hope to release albums of music related to their "Alabama Astronaut" podcast, including studio-caliber recordings from people such as Cody and Cassy Coots, shown.AlabamaAstronaut.com

“Most of these songs that we recorded, they can tell you who wrote the song,” he said. “It was so and so, so-and-so’s uncle, or whatever.”

“I’ve been chasing the songs and Ferrill’s been making the story about it,” said Partridge. “The podcast is essentially Ferrill’s creation.”

“Here’s the thing,” said Gibbs. “It’s also a podcast about the pandemic. It’s also a podcast about journalism, it’s a podcast most particularly about music. It’s a podcast about just putting down things that are aggravating and letting bygones be bygones and learning something about somebody that you would never have had anything in common with otherwise. It’s about a whole lot of different things.”

“I think the story is timely,” said Partridge. “I think it’s very timely. Because at the end of the day, I think what it’s about, it’s about breaking the barriers of culture and finding a place of humility from whence you can create meaningful relationships and find the beauty with and in people who are not exactly like you. If that ain’t something that needs to be told right now, I don’t know what should be.”

The podcast comes in seven installments; counting a foreword and the two-part conclusion, that makes for nine episodes. While the subject matter is exotic, one thing that stands out is that Gibbs and Partridge aren’t in it to hold their subjects up to ridicule.

“At the end of the day I don’t treat them as subjects. I treat them as humans. I think that’s what gets lost in a lot of the coverage on these people. They end up becoming caricatures or even players or something in somebody else’s story,” said Partridge. “I mean, they have jobs. They wake up in the morning, they feed their children. They live lives just like most normal Americans. They have a Facebook page. They’re regular folk. They just have this one belief that leads a lot of people to ridicule them. … We took a lot of attention and care not to do that.”

“These songs and this art is powerful. I would even say it’s undeniably powerful, once you experience it,” he said. “And that’s what we’re trying to bring out.”

With one season being released, with albums and an exhibition and an art book in the works, they’re far from done. They’ve already mapped out a second season of the podcast.

It’s safe to say it’s a continuing interest.

“I was going to between 12 and 20 services a month throughout the pandemic,” Partridge said. “I mean, I’ve been to a lot of church services, man. Over time, there’s some of them that are a little bit more standoffish than others, but over time I ended up connecting on a deeper level with a lot of these people and they’ve become some of my dearest friends.

“Am I going to hold a snake? No. But do I enjoy going to these services now? I was just at one this past Sunday,” he said. “If all I was trying to do was make a podcast and make a record, I would have already stopped. We’ve already got enough material to do everything I wanted to do. I’m going now because I kind of enjoy it.”

The “Alabama Astronaut” podcast can be heard at AlabamaAstronaut.com; the site also contains photos and other supplemental materials.

It also is available at major podcast outlets:

iTunes -- https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/alabama-astronaut/id1641712827

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0fqb57rktRJpHt5orRSttd?si=b47b8bd1116547ad

Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/search/alabamaastronaut

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