Choking on the Wire
This one was a different approach for me writing wise, it was inspired by the Epilogue of Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian. I got turned onto Blood Meridian through Ben Nichols’ solo album The Last Pale Light in the West. I love that album, it paints such vivid portraits of the characters in the story but I was really moved by the epilogue where McCarthy potentially describes a man crossing the plains digging fence holes while in the background “bone pickers” collect the remnants of the slaughtered buffalo. The scene really struck me and I found it to be such a powerful allegory for the American West and really human kind in general. We war, we conquer, then exploit and in the end through all that “progress” we end up building our own prisons. “Out there on the plains they’re striking fire, because a dog can’t bite when you got him by the throat. Soon we’ll all be choking on the wire, God ain’t here and Hell ain’t down below. God ain’t here, and Hell is all we know.” Lyrically it’s a fairly short song, but the instrumental section carries that drone of progress while the lead guitar emotes all that violence.

The Coyotes
“The Coyotes” is a tie-in to “Choking on the Wire” and an elaboration on the subject of Westward Expansion. This one focuses on coyotes trailing a wagon train waiting for their misfortune. I like perspective changes and gravitate to background characters and elevating them to a lead role or narrator. Coyotes are always part of the scenery out here, they’re the scavengers and pests of our world but they seem to keep on. In the end, the state of their lowly existence doesn’t matter if they outlast everyone else.

K.O.W
K.O.W stands for “King of Wyoming,” I wrote this song about one of my best friends quietly getting sober and the struggle of that. Pretty heavy thing to witness and I’m thankful to see it happen to several people I care about. They’re having quiet victories day to day even though there’s no real finish line. I’m just really proud of my friend.

The Vulture
Writing some songs that are sharing other people’s stories, like “K.O.W,” I get a bit of that remorse and doubt wondering if it’s my place to write about it. I always clear it with my friends if it’s about them, but it still leaves me with this vulture-like feeling. As a songwriter we pick through both our own and other people’s pain and stories. I wrote this track just as straight lyrics with some vague melody. Casey, a member of my band, had this ripping instrumental (as the song is structured now) that we really wanted to use and I ended up restructuring the lyrics to fit what Casey had already finished.

Pinto
Casey Shelden joined the band a few years ago to play lead guitar, one of my best friends and very much a partner in the creative process in this. Casey had his own band over in Idaho and one of his heroes was Pinto Bennett. I’ve got to hear stories about Pinto from Casey, we listen to his songs often and I really appreciate them. Pinto made unique music, hard country music for the time. He found success and acclaim overseas but in the states the notoriety was more regional and the appreciation came from fellow musicians. I never knew Pinto but he meant a lot to Casey and I wanted to make a song for him.

Idaho Hippies
This one ties into “Pinto” – I wrote this song about our friend Jim Humphreys (Humps) and for those folks that have been a part of that Idaho scene, they treat us like family when we get out that way. Humps has been a good friend to a lot of the bands; local or those touring through Idaho. He’s one of those people that you look forward to seeing when you get to town, that’ll jump in the van and hang for good company, bail you out if you break down in the middle of the night. He’s been there in the trenches with all those great bands and musicians out there over the years so I thought what a great focal point for that scene. We love ya Humps.

The Bronc Fighter
I’ve had this song “Bronc Fighter Blues” that I’ve shelved over the years. Really loved the lyrics of it but it lacked the emotion and energy I thought it needed and to match what our live show has become so we hashed it out into something we all really enjoy playing. It’s about a friend of mine but it’s a common story with a lot of rodeo guys. It’s a hard thing to put down when you get past your prime, it feels like admitting defeat. Quitting the chase on any dream is hard, but you can’t chase it forever and there’s more to life than just that one thing. Looking back it was everything until it wasn’t and you appreciate that the pursuit of some ambitions was the dream itself.

In the blood (Acoustic)
In February of 2024 my father-in-law Scott Kennedy passed away from a horse wreck in Wickenburg, AZ. He was a great man, a cowboy, and a loving grandfather to our boys. We miss him terribly. I wrote this song in the days leading up to his funeral. This is the most important song I’ve ever written, for what it would mean to my wife Blayne, my mother-in-law Beth and in the future to our boys. It’ll be another piece of him for them to hold onto as the years pass.

I wanted this song to be the closer to the album as a dedication to Scott, I feel it made for a good epilogue of The Western Tragedy and the subjects and themes the other songs hit on. I had put it out in a full band version as a single in 2024 but it really sits best with me in this stripped down acoustic take, the way Casey and I played it at his funeral.