Page 35 - the Noise October 2017

Dead Horses – Wisconsin Americana Hits Town
BY BEVERLEY NAPALM
From Milwaukee, the much-acclaimed Dead Horses make a welcome visit to Arizona the last part of the month. Using a traditional palette of sounds, the band’s stripped down approach provides a modern approach to traditional folk, Americana and blues. Uncluttered arrange- ments allow space for the radiant and soulful vocals of front-woman and songwriter Sarah Vos to shine center stage. It is a refreshing formula and has ensured an enthusiastic response from coast to coast. Their recent full-length, Cartoon Moon, produced by Ken Coomer (Uncle Tupelo, Wilco), has provided the band with a wonderful and sympathetically produced collec- tion of songs. It has also given the band a more pop-leaning than previous forays that in turn has helped the band reach a wider audience. The author caught up with Sarah Vos amidst an extensive nationwide tour.
How do you feel growing up in Wisconsin has flavored your musical approach?
My earliest musical influences were primarily through the church. My father was a pastor. Learning, memorizing, and singing hymns as a child influenced the way I approach writing lyrics specifically, and even as a child I was attracted to the romanticism that is present in so many old hymns and liturgy. Later on, when Dead Horses began and as we gained oppor- tunities within the folk and bluegrass community in the Midwest, I really learned to appreci- ate the community aspect of what folk music is and the influence that it has in our modern culture. Bands, like Trampled by Turtles, paved the way for string bands coming out of the Midwest — specifically this fusion between bluegrass and high-energy folk.
What originally inspired you to create? Is Dead Horses your first musical venture?
It has always been within my nature to want to create, to write, and the music was and is a great medium to do that. Besides being involved in choirs growing up, I played a lot of open mics throughout high school and was also involved in some bands in high school.
There is a strength and rawness in your minimal approach. Did you have an idea for your sound from the very start of the band, or were the band arrangements born out of the tools you had to work with at the time?
Sarah Vos and Daniel Wolff of Dead Horses | PHOTO BY DAVID JACKSON
also being open to that sound or song evolving, which I feel is very important for the sake of collaboration as well as creativity. As a band, I think we’ve always been willing to work with what the tools we have and I believe that has worked towards our success.
You have a very solid and expansive tour that runs through the middle of November, with more dates in the New Year. How do you stay focused and fresh for such a grueling schedule? Are you able to write new material on the road?
Writing is a practice for me, so I’m sort of always writing whether we’re on tour or not. There’s a lot to staying fresh and focused on the road; having good chemistry between the band, keeping it light and really supporting each other helps keep us focused. It can cer- tainly be challenging, but it’s also very inspiring to me seeing the country and meeting so many folks. A lot of what I’ve learned while being in Dead Horses has come from conversa- tions with people I meet on the road and observations I’ve made about different communi- ties. There’s a rhythm to the tour that helps with focus. Sometimes it feels like everything else sort of disappears.
You recently won many WAMI awards including “Best Americana/Bluegrass Artist,” “Best Fe- male Vocalist,” and “Best Album of the Year.” How do you cope with praise, and how do you see yourselves fitting in with the continuing history of Folk and Bluegrass?
Staying humble in an industry that loves to lavish praise as well as criticism is definitely a challenge and perhaps one of my biggest personal drawbacks to pursuing this life path. Having solid personal support from home really helps keep me grounded. I’ve come to be- lieve that more important than talent or skill or luck is the desire to do what you’re doing. At the heart of it, I really enjoy playing music and being involved in this project, and I’m willing to work hard to sustain it, and I also really believe in the team of people we have worked hard to do the same. It is an honor to me to be a part of this community, and it’s exciting to see the way the musical tradition has evolved.
| Dead Horses play Firecreek Coffee on 29 October with The Railsplitters. The band also play in Phoenix the night before, 28 October at The Valley Bar.
deadhorseswi.bandcamp.com
There’s an interesting balance between having deliberate ideas for a sound or a song and
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