Last night I attended the Horse Feathers concert at the Blind Pig, featuring opening band River Whyless. Both bands have a similar folksy, indie sound. River Whyless I was less familiar with. In one of the last songs, one of the violinists took her bow in her mouth so that she could knock on the wood of her violin to the beat. Their songs were upbeat and a nice opener.
At one point, someone from the audience shouted, “Killer Jam!” and one of the band members responded with a laugh. “Killer Jam? That has to be a first.” “Maybe ‘gentle jam’ but never ‘killer jam’.” Gentle jam is an accurate description of the type of music Horse Feathers make. Two of the band members kept interchanging between different instruments from acoustic guitar to banjo to instruments I am not knowledgeable enough to name (small banjo perhaps?). One of the parts I was looking forward to most was listening to the fiddle music live. Watching them dance and move around stage with their instruments made for a fun experience. It thought it was really great how thankful the lead vocalist was during the show. All the songs were very familiar to me, so I enjoyed staying for the whole performance. It was a nice way to unwind at the end a day with listless vocals and tender tunes from Horse Feathers. Their music always makes me feel really comfortable with life.
If you pay attention to the lyrics I often mind the tone of the words to be more somber than expected, only to be lulled by the gentleness of the sound. One of my favorite songs:
Lover of things,
won’t you agree
how the winter could bring
the darkest spring?
With hell on your face,
dirt on the walls
in the back of the place,
you grew and complained.
Father of three,
won’t you believe,
that the ones in between,
the ones that are blamed.
Of fickle faith,
cynics that seethe,
how their children are cursed,
cursed to believe.
It’s like marrow without bone.
To live in a house with no home.
Where the son is the darkest seed.
He crawls with the curs in the weeds.
Where had you been son?
Not in the street, not in the yard.
Only once, I’ll call off the dogs, if you call off your guard.
Where had you gone?
Where had you been?
Lyrics credit to Horse Feathers.
Link to the video for their song ‘Curs in the Weeds’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBPO9Kun_9A
