HORSEHEAD

SOUTHERN EXPOSURE

Richmond's rootsy Horsehead bring their American-bred rock to Lynchburg

By Matt Ashare |   

Posted February 13, 2013

When Jon Brown arrives in Lynchburg with his Richmond-based band Horsehead this Friday, February 22, for a show at Rivermont Pizza, he'll be on fairly familiar ground. And not just because he's played here before, both with the full Horsehead complement, and with longtime guitar-slinger Kevin Inge as the stripped-down duo the Dimmer Twins. No, Brown's ties to the Lynchburg area go much deeper.
    "I'm originally from Madison Heights," he says, when I'm catch him at home on a Saturday afternoon. "I went to Amherst County High School and all. . . It's where I grew up."
    Brown found his way to Richmond  in ’97, and and quickly cemented a lasting partnership with Inge, a formidable guitarist who's since expanded his repertoire to include keyboards and pedal steel. "We had a band called Drag Strip Syndicate," Brown recalls. "When that broke up, I decided to make a solo record. I just had a bunch of songs that Kevin was recording with me. This was in 2004. We started demoing stuff, and then we added people to play on the record. So, I figured we should just make it a band and call it a band. That was the beginning of Horsehead. I guess I've just never been one to be, like, 'here's my record that a bunch of people played on.'"
    Having bonded over a shared fondness for bold, bluesy guitar riffs, and earnest, no-frills, heartland rock with a touch of country twang, Brown and Inge have driven Horsehead, now rounded out by bassist Randy Mendicino and drummer Gregg Brooks, down a well-worn path toward a gutsy brand of anthemic, yet reflective Americana. "Kevin and I have been playing together for years and years and years," Brown says. "When you have any kind of relationship with somebody for that long, particularly a musical one, there's an unspoken connection. I can make obscure references, and he'll know exactly what I'm talking about because we've spent so much time around each other and we go home and listen to the same records."
    The new Sympathetic Vibrations, Horsehead's fourth full-length, opens on a pensive note, with Brown strumming sparely on an acoustic guitar as Inge paints the corners with soulful keyboards tones and haunting wisps of pedal steel. "Raise your head up to the sunlight, feel the heat on your face," Brown intones, his voice clenched tight, "We been hanging here for a while, we got time to waste." But there's little time wasted before electric guitars get to humming, and the band settle into the solid, Stonesy groove of "Darkened Streets," a hard-driving ode to hard-won transcendence that leans in the direction of the kind of epic rock Springsteen mined in the ’70s.
    Elsewhere, Horsehead get a little help from their Drive-By Truckers friend Jay Gonzalez, who adds some juke-joint piano stylings to the gritty "Big Sun," and sits in on two more of the disc's 13 tracks. And, banjo picking adds a kiss of bluegrass to the waltzing "God Damned the Rain to Fall," the most overtly country tune on an album that jangles, pops, and churns through Americana idioms without settling into a predictable Nashville rut.
    "People ask me what kind of music we play," offers Brown, "and you never want to hear that question because it's so hard to answer. But I always say that it's American rock and roll. Because it incorporates so much music. I mean, I love Sam Cooke and Al Green as much as I love George Jones and Tom Petty. It's all important to me. And it comes out in what we play. There's a little bit of soul, a little bit of country, and a whole lot of rock and roll. I love all of those things."
    Here's more of what Brown had to say about singing, songwriting, and taking the show on the road. . .

Q: Are you and Kevin a Jagger/Richards team when it comes to songwriting; or is it more like David Lowry and Johnny Hickman in Cracker, a Virginia band that I'm guessing you're familiar with?
A: Actually, our first bass player, Bob Rupe, was from Cracker. But, I've only ever known those guys in passing. And David doesn't live in Richmond anymore. We did end up in a lot of the same places back when Bob was in the band. I think Richmond is on that cusp, where you can hear the Southern influence in the music that comes out of here, but there's also that straight ahead rock and roll feel to it. Cracker did that real well.

Q: I think it's what people are calling the new Southern rock. . .

A: Yeah, it's not a bunch of dumb rednecks playing rock. It's a bunch of dumb rednecks playing new Southern rock. 

Q: I hear that. But there's also a healthy dose of the Stones in there. And there are strong hints of Springsteen as well.

A: We are big Stones fans. They made some great records in that period between '67 and '76. And Springsteen is in there, especially in my approach to songwriting. I mean, it may not sound like Springsteen once the whole band plays it together, but I really respect his songwriting. He had a certain era too, from "Born to Run" to "The River," where it was brilliant storytelling in three minutes. It's tough to do that. I really respect that art. So, when it comes to songwriting, big influences of mine are Springsteen and Tom Petty and, obviously, Bob Dylan. He's kind of the pinnacle of that.

Q: Yeah, it's amazing that Dylan is still out there doing it — writing new songs, and always touring. . .

A: It really is. I think there's some people that were intended only to do what they do. It's like him and Stevie Wonder are two guys who could only have ever played music. It would have been a travesty if they'd done anything else. And, with Dylan, I think he just doesn't have any choice except to keep doing it because, well, you just do it until you can't do it anymore. It's funny because I was talking to my dad about something like this earlier today. He's a Baptist preacher, and he was saying that it must be pretty tough to do all the traveling that I do to play some of the smaller shows I play. And I said, "yeah, but think about what you do" — he's been preaching for forty years now. I said, "you've never gotten rich from it, but you do it because you love it." I know he wouldn't quit unless he had to. So, I told him that that's how I feel about playing music. I wouldn't just stop, because I can't. It's what I love to do. And I can feel that in what Dylan does. You can tell he still loves it.

Q: I going to guess that that's why you and Kevin started doing the Dimmer Twins thing.

A: Exactly. If you have that need, you have to keep doing it. Sometimes I'll play shows by myself, and sometimes we do it as the Dimmer Twins. We love to include the whole band. But if they can't do it, then we're not going to stop traveling and playing because we can't. It can be tough some times for guys who have familial obligations to get out of town for gigs. But you have to keep the car running.

Q: What are you happiest about with the new album?

A: Well, the biggest thing I can say about it is that you can hear the influences, but you can't say that this song sounds like a particular artist because it sounds like us. On the previous albums, you could maybe pick out individual songs and say, that sounds like a Stones song, or that sounds like a Tom Petty song. I think we've matured to where it sounds like us with certain influences. That's the major progression. And, I would also say that the production has gotten better, thanks to Kickstarter. It's just unbelievable. Sometimes as a musician you start to think that nobody really cares if I'm doing this or not. You can start to feel sorry for yourself. But, when you have people contributing money to help you make a record, well, it shows you that they really do care that you're doing it. It's an amazing boost of confidence.