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Shelley Short Captain Wild Horse (Rides the Heart of Tomorrow)
Hush Records
Country music is generally associated with straightforward, honest talk and humble stories of woe. So, naturally, Shelley Short decides to buck the trend once again with this, her sophomore album after 2003’s Say Little Dogies, Why?. And it couldn’t be further from a slump. Instead Captain Wild Horse is an eerie, sophisticated, and adventurous album of alt. country at its finest.
Track listing:
01 Tomorrow Night
02 Like Anything, It's Small
03 On the Waterfront
04 Sweet Heart Said
05 Lupine Manner
06 All Eyes on the Skyline
07 Goodbye Old Morning
08 Pullin' Pullin'
09 Roaring Roars
10 Sunny Side
11 Wild Wild Horses
Most have focused on Short’s vocals, and they are indeed the centerpiece of her work – delicate, childish, occasionally cloying, like a 12-year-old Loretta Lynn desperately in love with Regina Spektor. And the vocals do propel this homespun album, elevating “Goodbye Old Morning” from simplistic country to mournful elegy. But there’s more to the story behind the varnish – lyrically, Short delivers like a female Jeff Mangum; “By the time I go to pieces you’ll be gone,” she chirps on “Like Anything, It’s Small.” “When the hands detach the leashes, move along.”
Perhaps what makes this record so unique is the diversity of its influences – from The Decemberists on the haunting “Sweet Heart Said” to Emmylou Harris on “Roaring Roars” – but it’s neither overzealous nor stale. On “Pullin’ Pullin’” she sighs, resigned “It’s the same old beautiful story.” Captain Wild Horse may be beautiful, but it sure as hell ain’t the same as anyone.
