The Horse’s Ha
(Hidden Agenda)
Given the musical pedigrees of co-founders Jim Elkington and Janet Beveridge Bean, this debut from The Horse's Ha is pretty much what you'd expect when an expat Brit and Zincs member collaborates with a Freakwater heroine. Forming a sort of Chicago underground super group by recruiting cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm (Wilco, Jim O'Rourke), bassist Nick Macri (Mark Eitzel, Jeremy Enigk) and drummer Charles Rumback (Leaves, Via Tania), songwriter Elkington taps the historical link between Appalachia and British folk music, but then runs it through a Windy City filter for additional - sometimes jazzy - flavoring. The mostly acoustic settings, sparse instrumentation, and trad feel may suggest folk-music simplicity, but as the songs unfurl they reveal sophisticated arrangements and interplay to match the fantastical and sometimes sinister natural surroundings of the narratives.
The album title is inspired by a fictitious Wales graveyard in a Dylan Thomas short story that also gave the band its name, and Elkington's Brit-folk crisp guitar patterns - think James Yorkston - provide an earthy and Autumnal baseline setting for the witches, "nagging ghosts" and "talking woodcuts" that populate the narratives. The stories read more mysterious than Freakwater's everywoman lyrics, and Elkington tempers his Zincs-tendency to aim at our funny bones. Instead, the lyrics rely more on striking images - "silver sheaths reflecting the light," "waltzes in starlight," and "owl chorus hoots" - that project the listener into the dead-quiet and heightened awareness of a moon-lit early morn. But despite the dream-like wanderings of the narrators, the stories often root in a desire for, or appreciation of, home: "I'd give my right tit to catch a ride/and I'd throw in my left if it meant getting home before the light," Elkington sings on the shuffling "Wild's Empty Bedroom."
Elkington and Beveridge Bean won't remind anyone of Phillips/Cass when they duet, but his limited vocal range benefits from her quavering alto, and the two develop a warm blend whether harmonizing or singing counter-point. And though you can say, for instance, that disc-opener "Plumb" is done in the Brit-folk style, or "Heiress" is rooted in country, little here reads that straightforward. But the twists are subtle and pulled off with unfailing grace. The interplay between Macri and Rumback is often so intimate that it's easy to overlook the interactive listening and top-notch playing that's going on. And though Lonberg-Holm plays it straight for the most part, the melodies and accents he runs through the songs reflect his expertly refined ear. Here and there the musicians approach more free territory (most notably Lonberg-Holm's solo freakout on "Map of Stars"), and the instrumental "Liberation" is so good you long for a few more of these interludes. But that's not to suggest the rest is any less enthralling on this sparkling debut. More please, soon.
Standout Tracks: "Rising Moon" "Liberation" "The Piss Choir" JOHN SCHACHT
