Strung Like A Horse Evolve with Folk, Rock and Pop Sounds on Impressive Debut ‘WHOA!’ (ALBUM REVIEW)

Chattanooga’s Strung Like A Horse may have been one of the most popular Americana bands out there to never release a record. That is until now.

The wildly popular live act, having shared stages with everyone from Old Crow Medicine Show and Shooter Jennings to Charlie Daniels and Travis Tritt, have finally released their debut, WHOA! and it certainly proves to be a collection that was worth the wait. Starting off as a string band, they have evolved their sound quite a bit since the founding combining elements of Americana, folk, rock and pop, but there are still echoes of bluegrass/strings that can be heard throughout on songs like “Pelahatchie Nights” and “Lookin’ For Love” (a classic in the making that will likely become a live staple for the band for the next decade or two).

The album is bookended by the sweet melancholy of “Fuck What They Think” and the equally mellow “Dreamin’”, but in between the band wavers between funk-infused moments of slow tempo tracks like “Till The Wheels Fall Off” to more raucous songs like “Gold in Their Souls” (with the burn it to the ground guitar solo) and “Lookin’ For Love”. By the time you get the genre agnostic “Glowin’,” the band’s charm and appeal is inescapable. Just as the music vacillates from mood to mood, lyrically the songs bounce from universally relatable situations to very specific character studies (like the small-town narrator in “I Was Born Here”). Though the record is crammed with highlights, the Nicki Bluhm “Cold & Lonesome” is simply sublime.

The record was produced by the reliably brilliant Matt Ross-Spang (Jason Isbell, Margo Price, John Prine) and manages to capture the vibe of their rightfully celebrated live shows perfectly. WHOA! has been in the chamber for over a year, initially expected to come out in March, but the world stopped spinning just around that time. Given what we’ve been through over the past nine months and what still lies ahead, WHOA! seems to be coming out at just the right time, offering a perfect 45 minutes to escape into.

Photo credit: Josh Halling

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