I made it out for a run and a workout today, which always does wonders for my mood. Fresh air and exercise - the secret that’s not a secret.
Disc 1751 is…There Used to be Horses Here
Artist: Amy Speace with the Orphan Brigade
Year of Release: 2021
What’s up with the Cover? I’m not much of an equestrian (I have ridden horses, but it was a long time ago), but based on the album title I’m going to suggest this building is an abandoned stable.
Why do I think it is abandoned? Reading comprehension.
How I Came To Know It: I read a review back in 2021 and it sounded interesting. This was my first encounter with Amy Speace, but the record ended up being harder to get than I expected, and I only found it a couple weeks ago.
How It Stacks Up: I now have four Amy Speace albums (and I am on the lookout for three more). Of the four I have this one comes in last.
Rating: 2 stars but almost 3
Lots of the best folk music features songs about very little. Pastoral scenes, and ruminations on family, friends, and local travails of regular folks living regular lives. Amy Speace’s “There Used to be Horses” takes this exact approach. Unfortunately, while there are a couple of gems, there were also large stretches where these stories just come out…boring.
Speace shines brightest when she’s recalling good memories and framing them in the context of loss. Listening to these standouts I was reminded of Tennyson’s line from In Memoriam “the past will always win/A glory from its being far”.
The first and best song is the title track, with evocative stanzas like:
“There used to be
horses here
My father knew the owner from church
They’ve torn down the old brick house
Now there’s just a big hole in the earth”
Accompanied by a tune that isn’t so much of a gallop, as the ghost of a gallop. Well played, Amy.
Later, on “Shotgun Hearts” Speace sings about the wild abandon of youth. The narrator, seeing a man on the train that reminds her of a breathless all-night affair, is pulled back in time. The song is partly a celebration, but there is an undertone of loss that feels less about that one moment, and more about all the long years that have passed since.
Unfortunately, that’s the majority of the good stuff. On most of the tracks I found myself fading in and out, with a recurring desire to change the channel (which as we know from Odyssey Rule #3, is not allowed).
These lesser songs felt like an after-school special where kids and grandmas learn valuable lessons from one another on the wisdom in being old or young. Or maybe a low budget romance movie on the W. network where the characters are all florists, art-dealers and chocolatiers.
It was not all bad, though. Speace knows how to write a song, and her rich vocals compare favourably with other folk/country crossover artists like Mary Chapin Carpenter. It is pleasant just to hear her sing, and she has a strong sense of phrasing that lends story to tunes that, many of which, have used more story.
Instead, once we’re done with mass transit love affairs and absent horses, we’re left with a whole lot of songs about fathers and mothers, and growing up and all those basic themes I noted in the lede. I know from other reviews that these topics deeply resonated with Speace at the time, who had just become a mother and lost a father. Unfortunately while the feelings are genuine the songs don’t do the depths of emotion justice. When she does stretch into metaphor on “Mother is a Country” it comes across strained.
The record recovers with a third great song right at the end, with a cover of Warren Zevon’s “Don’t Let Us Get Sick”. Touching and raw in equal measure, Speace sings this song with simple and honest grace.
So a bit of column A and a bit of column B, but overall I don’t think there is enough here to keep this record. I will send it on its way to a better home than mine.
Best tracks: There Used to be Horses Here, Shotgun Hearts, Don’t Let Us Get Sick
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