Brown Horse impress at intimate Manchester show
The country rock six-piece won over the crowd with their superb musicianship.
Photo: Deva O’Neill
The rising energy in the room was palpable at Manchester’s Night and Day Café as Brown Horse fired off their set with the cacophonic whirlwind of recent single Twisters. Performing to a packed crowd as part of Manchester Folk Festival, the band flew through a collection of new and old songs alike. The songs from their upcoming record Total Dive sounded exciting and alive, and it’s always a joy to see an audience absolutely itching to hear a band’s new material just as much as they are restless to hear their old favourites too.
Forming in Norwich and now with three stellar albums under their belt, Brown Horse are a band in the truest sense of the word. They are a real collective. The four main members interlock and intertwine at ease. As individuals, they all offer something unique and exciting, but together they possess a perfect alchemy that allows their songs to appear as much more than just the sum of their parts.
That’s not to say that the individual parts aren’t anything less than spectacular. Nyle Holihan’s lead guitar lines are so effortlessly and loosely melodic. They get transplanted inside my head as often as most bands’ lead vocal melodies. Emma Tovell’s bass playing does so much more than just ground the band; their parts are creative, bouncing and keep the songs moving forward with momentum. On top of all that, Rowan Braham’s keys and accordion playing soak up the songs in lush waves and add a glimmering shine to all of the arrangements.
Brown Horse know when to let loose but, most importantly, they know the art of restraint. They aren’t a band that plays for the sake of it. Each note, instrument and lyric is as deliberate as the last. They are a band made up of four distinct songwriters, and it’s clear that they know how to bend and mould themselves inside each arrangement to best serve each of their songs.
Perhaps the most important element of that is Patrick Turner’s lead vocals. They exist within the same searching, growling despair found in the Springsteen songs that exist on the edge of towns, highways and factories. Rather than dominating the band, Turner’s vocals anchor the band and the stories within their songs, forming the foundation that each band member can then branch out from.
Seeing Brown Horse isn’t just an exercise in witnessing great song craft. It is tons of fun. New songs like Wreck and Hares fit in seamlessly alongside old classics like Corduroy Couch and Radio Free Molinas. The smiles in the crowd were mirrored by the smiles on the band members’ faces as they joyously sang along to each other’s songs off mic. It’s impossible not to get drawn into songs and performances like these.
At the end of the night, they announced that they would be coming back to Manchester later in the year in support of their excellent upcoming album Total Dive. I’d wager the vast majority of that crowd will be joining them to do it all over again.
