Hogwarts Professor

As a wonderful surprise for Friday the 13th, not only has J. K. Rowling met the team from StrikeFans.com, she has shared with both them and now us, the title of Strike 9 – Sleep Tight, Evangeline. A quick google search reveals that this is the title of song and album from Whiskey Shambles, who are described as “pitch dark ultra-blues” and “RL Burnside and Black Sabbath jamming with Nina Simone in a burned-out rum shack…”

The Whiskey Shambles refuse to accept the constraints of the narrow opinions of how a blues band should sound. Their prime objective is to steal your heart, melt your face, and make you feel alive. With backgrounds steeped in the traditions of the Delta to the hallowed opera stage, they are just as likely to call up the darkness with a murder ballad as they are to take you to church.

 The lyrics for the tune and a Whiskey Shambles performance:

I live the closest dreams, when I’m lying broken, and done for.

I live the closest dreams, when I’m dying, choking, and dead for . . .

Sleep tight, Evangeline. I’ll see you in my dreams

When I’m lying broken, and done for.

Sleep tight, Evangeline. I’ll be there in your dream

when I’m dying, choking, and dead for you.

The trademark for “Sleep Tight, Evangeline” was registered in 2023 (almost certainly by a J. K. Rowling cut-out) and the album was released in November 2025, which makes this album an unlikely source for the book title, but…

The band are followed by J. K. Rowling on Twitter, and they have been playing the song Sleep Tight, Evangeline, at least since 2014. It seems possible, and I would argue likely, that permission was sought and gained from Whiskey Shambles to use the title in 2023. The band, realising the huge publicity potential, releases an album with that title in 2025 prior to the book release, their first album in more than ten years.

Other Likely Inspirations for the Title

The Longfellow Poem:

John Granger found that: The name Evangeline was first popularised in the 19th century by the poem “Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie” written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The poem tells the story of a young woman named Evangeline who is separated from her true love during the forced deportation of the Acadians from Nova Scotia. The poem was incredibly popular in its time and helped to establish the name Evangeline as a classic and romantic choice for baby girls.

Musical Inspiration:

Evangeline is most famous in popular music as a song by The Band.

Emmy Lou Harris recorded the song and titled the album Evangeline.

 

Elizabeth Baird Hardy, Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts Professor, the genius behind AppalachianInkling.com, Hunger Games expert, and author of Milton, Spenser and the Chronicles of Narnia: Literary Sources for the C.S. Lewis Novels, joined Nick and John to discuss the Charm Bracelet that J. K. Rowling posted on her Twixter home page as a Christmas gift to her readers. Mrs Murray said that that the thirteen charms on nine links were a set of clues about the next Strike novel, the ninth in a ten book series.

In the first Part of Elizabeth, Nick, and John’s conversation, they discussed Rowling’s charm bracelet history, speculated about why she posted this picture when she did, decided to look at each charm on the bracelet for its stand-alone meaning and its place in the nine link set, and to read the whole series as if it were a ring composition, one reflecting a nine Part structure in Strike 9. They then made deep dives into the details of each charm: the heart shaped box containing a ‘You and Me’ engagement ring, a golden diamond-laden egg, a foul anchor, two angels, and a Trojan horse.

In the second Part of that conversation, the trio of Serious Strikers continue with the remaining charms on the bracelet, namely, a Jack-in-the-box, an Hourglass, a White Rose and Crocodile, a Corvid head, and a Psalter paired on the last link with the Head of Persephone. They share their thoughts, too, about the bracelet as a symbolic integer and its ring meaning.

Each Substack video post comes with links to or excerpts from sources mentioned in their Deep Dive discussions.

Their conclusions? The bracelet is an avalanche of Christian content, one more instance of Rowling ring-writing, here in jewelry, with latched objects at beginning, middle and end, and several hints that Robin Ellacott won’t be getting out of this decalogy alive.

Enjoy! And sign up for the HogwartsProfessor Substack feed while you’re over there! It’s free and the comment thread conversations are the beating heart of Strike-Ellacott fandom.