Song, by Toad

Once again I find myself reviewing a record I was turned onto by Rich from Cable & Tweed, proving that his Tweedar is active and as sharp as ever (he’ll kill me for that – sorry Rich!).

If you like your indie steeped in stories to fill the music with meaning, then Sleepy Horses are for you.  Having recorded Somewhere Out West… front-man Nic Goodson was found as good as dead in a hotel room late last year.  Although he was later revived in hospital he was told that the nerve damage to his right leg was so severe that he would never walk again.  Moving back to Texas, Goodson set about defying his doctors and the recent re-forming of Sleepy Horses as a three-piece with two of his close friends has proved full vindication of his stubbornness.

While we await the new material this revitalised line-up produces, there is still their earlier album Somewhere Out West, Lonesome For You, that finds itself somewhat overshadowed by the events since its release.  The music is a sort of epic desert alt-country which will be familar to Toad readers from its resemblance to Richmond Fontaine and even some of the recent Willard Grant Conspiracy or Calexico output.  Sleepy Horses overlap with them at the dusty, desolate Americana end of their spectrum and then pull away into distorted shoegaze at the other end.

Their music seems to be layered, with the introspective, angsty guitar overlaid on a constant base of South-Western Americana.  Towards the end of the album the guitar work gets more and more tense which perhaps drags this record away from the sort of thing that you’d play all the way through at a dinner party.  Let’s face it, some faceless Norah Jones fan is bound to start pursing the mouth as the guitar solos slowly get more drawn out and emotive – never raucous, just intense.

Given how well this takes its place in the pantheon of dusty Southern Americana I am amazed Rich had to get in touch and personally demand that I listen to it.  I’m bloody glad he did though.

Sleepy Horses – Lubbock Love Song
Sleepy Horses – Floods

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