Review: Tim Easton- 'fIREHORSE'

Tim Easton is one of Nashville's best-kept secrets, a songwriter's songwriter whose almost 30-year career has been marked by one strong album after another. This time, on fIREHORSE, Easton is calling on some of his Music City pals to help him with a 10-song collection that ranges widely across the Americana landscape.

Recorded along with producer Kevin Nolan (Maggie Rose, Shemekia Copeland), fIREHORSE also features the rhythm section of country star Lainey Wilson's band and vocal help on two songs from Jeremy Lister (Street Corner Symphony, Post Malone). But it's Easton himself who shines here, with his world-worn voice and excellent guitar work.

The album opens with “River”, informed by a near-fatal rafting accident Easton suffered in Alaska. The song begins with the children's riddle “What can run but never walks / Has a big mouth but never talks / Has a head but never weeps / Makes a big bed but never sleeps?” and continues with a swampy beat that Easton wanted to mimic fast, churning water.

One of the highlight tracks on fIREHORSE is the seven-minute “Never Punch the Clock Again.” It's the tale of a drifter who rides the rails and avoids working for “the man” at all costs. There's an autobiographical element to the song that mirrors Easton's own itinerant life as a traveling musician and one-time busker across Europe. Easton cited Little Feat as a sonic inspiration for the song, and there's certainly an element of the southern rock legends in the barroom piano stroll. Still, I also hear more than a little Randy Newman in the lyrical delivery.

The album's most upbeat song is also its first single, “Don't Let Your Mind Grow Dark.” It's a call to anyone feeling down, and a much-needed salve considering the current state of the world. The song was written quickly during the album's recording session, and that spontaneous energy shines through in lyrics like “Instead of slipping off into the void/ I'm going to climb on up on this firehorse.”

There's plenty more to recommend across the 10 tracks that make up fIREHORSE. Side One closer “Son of a Tyrant” features a blistering guitar solo that isn't to be missed. “615 Heartbreaker” is an ambling shuffle of a song about a Nashville (Area Code 615) photographer who's “got the sauce and she's always free.” The slide-heavy “Another Good Man Down” is a song about the effects of cocaine both on families and on victims of the cartels who traffic it.

fIREHORSE is Tim Easton's 14th album, and it's a worthy entry in what has been one of Americana's more consistent catalogs. If you like your roots music a little rough around the edges, more than gently used, and always honest, fIREHORSE is an album you're going to want on your turntable.