One Horse Pony.
By Colleen Taylor
This week, I was looking for some fun, whimsical music, and I found it in the Cork blues band One Horse Pony. As their humorous band name—a mixed idiom between “one-horse town” and “one-trick pony”—might suggest, this Cork group offers some mirth with their music. They make brassy, bouncy, feel-good tunes. Even their tag line is a comic hook: “Original blues music from Ireland’s deep South.” But can a group of Irish lads play blues music as if they hailed from early 20th-century Mississippi? I took a tour through their album “Blue When I Go” to find out.
Of course, it’s no big surprise that Irish musicians would be drawn to the blues. The two traditions share an enmeshed history—blues deriving from country, which itself has roots in traditional Irish folk music, and Irish music recently incorporating blues instruments like banjo and even the harmonica. They are cousin traditions, and both genres, trad and blues alike, celebrate the session lifestyle. One Horse Pony clearly draws from that session atmosphere: their music is alive and gives the illusion of spontaneity and improv. Perhaps it’s the bias of my own ears, but I can’t help but think there is something particularly Irish and trad-sounding about the way this band makes rhythm with their strings, or sing their more ballad-like songs. I even detected what sounded conspicuously like a tin whistle and Irish flute on one track. Nonetheless, this is a blues band through and through, complete with harmonicas, bass, and deep, guttural vocals.
One Horse Pony has completely adopted the persona of the acoustic blues musician of the Deep South, complete with American-style theatrics. For instance, they don’t go by their Christian names, but blues-ied tag names: John “The Badger,” Reverend Rob Hercules, Meerkat Milot, Kevin FF Germany, and King Bart. What’s more, in their music videos, they wear early 20th-century saloon attire as their songs narrate a love story featuring models in flapper attire. While I appreciate their enthusiasm and their music itself, I think the theatricality of the music videos might take things too far. Unlike their music itself, this routine comes across as amateur.
But, on a purely musical level, I think One Horse Pony pulls it off. They’ve made a real, commendable blues album with their debut “Blue When I Go.” The title track, in particular, is a stand out. The vocals are jovial and infectious, full of deep, rhythmic character: the song bounces out of the speakers and into your muscles. One can’t help but move along to it. Several of the songs brought a smile to my face, like “Far and Wide” and “Last Fair Deal.” The album is conversational, lively, upbeat, and simply easy to listen to. It’s as whimsical and fun as I hoped it would be. Finally, perhaps most interesting of all, the final track on the album redirects from the blues to Gospel. “No More Water” is an a capella, purely vocal, and truly authentic Gospel chorus. The surprise was idiosyncratic for the album as a cohesive whole, but a welcome and successful encore.
One Horse Pony are fully dedicated to the blues tradition. They honor traditional blues practices, while still managing to sound original and one-of-a-kind. Maybe it’s because they have the unique perspective of Ireland’s deep South, as opposed to North America’s. It looks like One Horse Pony will keep trotting the blues through Ireland, with a hometown gig in Cork in October, at the Jazz Festival. Like their name, One Horse Pony is a happy Irish idiosyncrasy.
