Lonely Horse

Long, 27, and Hild, 23, who have been courted by major labels, shrug it off. There are frustrations. Lonely Horse’s first full-length album, recorded almost two years ago at Sonic Ranch, won’t be out until August due to record-label drama. Brooklyn-based Nouveau Riche Records will issue “My Desert Son, Part 2.” - Hector Saldana

San Antonio's Lonely Horse is a two-piece tribe comprised of Nick Long and Travis Hild. They make dark folk-rock which crackles with bluesy riffs. Dense and intense, Lonely Horse's songs are emotionally explosive and spiritually charged works of art that will leave your little hairs standing on end and your mind wondering how two dudes can reach such heights of sonic power and immediacy.

Seeing the band play live, you understand the extent to which this is Long's personal passion project (the name of the band itself is Long's Native American name). His voice — probably the outfit's strongest instrument — is impressively expressive and can range in flavor from a stomach-turning dejection to painful anger to a tender understanding of himself and others. I get the sense that Long, who also pens all the songs and plays guitar, creates and plays music as an urgent need rather than simply a hobby or career choice. Meanwhile, there's an organic connection between Long and Hild (drums), whose musical intuition, ability to make quick adjustments, and imagination allow the two to improvise large portions of their songs live and to create spaces where new creations are born inside of older ones. Seeing them live is an arresting experience.

Long spoke with the Current days before the Hi-Tones' March 22 release party for My Desert Son, the first Lonely Horse EP.

On the band's odyssey:
"In the beginning, most of the inspiration came from old family stories and my Blackfoot/Siksika Native American heritage. I wanted to make like indie rock music for Indians [laughs] or something like that. But I think both my cultures ended up blended well with each other, music-wise. We've been jamming for about two years now and it's taken us this far to find out how to exactly deliver our music in a way that people will turn and listen. We're a two piece now because we choose to be. I think it was meant to be that way."

On 'My Desert Son':
"It's a whole lot of me. Most, if not all, the songs on this EP are stories of my failed marriage and divorce, realizations that not everything works the way you want it too [Long's son now lives with his mother in Virginia]. Fuckin' tore me to pieces. I was a river, he was a tree, and she was my sun. Now that's all a desert. I hope San Antonio feels the music in a spiritual way. I think we captured the emotions and intensities that we needed."

On their plans for the release party:
"We want to try and getthe crowd's attention through all the booze and have a real moment, a pure moment, so I'd say we might try and make it more personal — break it all down and build everyone up again." - James Courtney

Lonely Horse (Nick Long in guitar/vocals, Travis Hild on drums) is the type of band you just don’t forget after you see it for the first time. What started as a six-piece in 2009 gradually became what it is now: a two-piece more interested in eclectic songs than just groove alone. They go from fierce soulful/bluesy riffs to mellow artsy folk, and their My Desert Son EP is a teaser of an upcoming full-length. But you only get the full LH experience live, so don’t miss this one. In case that was not enough, the show will also feature the Offbeats (one of the top five local bands on my list), Islands & Tigers, and Dark Planes. Another solid lineup in the “new” venue formerly known as Limelight. $3-$5, 9pm Friday, War Room, 2718 N St Mary’s, (210) 735-7775, warroomsa.com. - Micheal Garcia

Lonely Horse (Nick Long in guitar/vocals, Travis Hild on drums) is the type of band you just don’t forget after you see it for the first time. What started as a six-piece in 2009 gradually became what it is now: a two-piece more interested in eclectic songs than just groove alone. They go from fierce soulful/bluesy riffs to mellow artsy folk, and their My Desert Son EP is a teaser of an upcoming full-length. But you only get the full LH experience live, so don’t miss this one. In case that was not enough, the show will also feature the Offbeats (one of the top five local bands on my list), Islands & Tigers, and Dark Planes. Another solid lineup in the “new” venue formerly known as Limelight. $3-$5, 9pm Friday, War Room, 2718 N St Mary’s, (210) 735-7775, warroomsa.com. - Michael Garcia

SA SOUND
Maverick Fest 2014 Reveals Final Lineup: Lonely Horse Is In
January 28, 2014
By Enrique Lopetegui

Maverick

The final lineup for the major stage of the second annual Maverick Music Festival was announced today. In addition to the first list of performers, the final list includes Georgia-based singer-songwriter Washed Out, alternative rock band Candlebox, hip-hop duo Run the Jewels (El-P and Killer Mike) and San Antonio favorite two-piece Lonely Horse. - Enrique Lopetegui

Lonely Horse - Logo

Lonely Horse (Nick Long on guitar and vocals and Travis Hild on drums) won the regional qualifier of the Hard Rock Rising competition organized by Hard Rock Café and will battle 95 other bands from around the world. The goal is to earn enough votes to become one of 25 finalists, and then a panel of industry experts (including Steven Van Zandt, from the E Street Band) will choose a winner and two runner-up bands. Voting starts at 9 a.m. Monday, April 22 and ends May 1, and you can participate via Hard Rock or Facebook.

The winner gets a six-city world tour organized by Hard Rock International (including one at the Hard Rock Calling festival in London), an album and video produced through Hard Rock Records, and new music equipment and gear valued at $10,000. According to organizers, there could be additional dates at Hard Rock branches in Sydney, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Chicago and Honolulu.

In order to get to this point, Lonely Horse beat Made Flesh and The Brothers Vinyl from Austin, David Shabani from San Marcos, and SHINEHER from San Antonio.

“I’m very excited to be representing San Antonio in the final vote,” Long told the Current. “I feel like my band of two members is now a band of almost two million. If I can have the city’s support, I know we can win this thing.” - Enrique Lopetegui

Bodies can be a currency in popular music. Are they toned enough? Do they move the right way on stage? Do they prance, do they dance, does stature or does physical recklessness enhance the music about to come off the stage?

And while he is known for the visible passion, anguish and joy with which he moves on stage, for Nick Long of the duo Lonely Horse, the body is “just a suit that holds who we really are inside.”

It’s an idea he’s expressed to the press before about the spirituality of the folk and rock music he plays with drummer Travis Hild. It’s music that has, at times, hinged on the ideas of passing from the world. Now, that’s not to say the music and lyrics of the San Antonio duo are serene, celestial episodes with the cosmos figured out. On the contrary, their EP My Desert Son (out a year ago) is full of struggle. There’s a rooty, Southwestern musical turmoil, even during the sweetest moments of songs like “if you knew what we know” — presenting lyrics that push through the fog of family matters and wars of false holiness.

And it’s further interesting that that in addition to being part of the band’s ethos and origin story, Long’s Black Foot and Siksika heritage has become something of a genre qualifier of its own. But the influence does manifest itself musically. Percussion is central, and there are certainly moments at which Long’s lyrics become either so abstract or so mournfully blurred that the songs feel like a meditation more than an explanation. Amid images of family and desert and loss, there is some cyclical feel that the band is not merely performing songs it wrote, but that the songs are self-sustaining entities expanding themselves. In some cases, when Long is wailing over a full and solitary guitar and drummer Hild is pounding his hardest, the songs feel like they roll into each other eternally, something like the serpent involuntarily swallowing its own tail.

In September of this year, Lonely Horse will release the follow up to the My Desert Son EP. It’s called My Desert Son (part 2), an album which Long dedicates to his son and which was fittingly recorded in the kaleidoscope-esque Adobe Room of the Sonic Ranch studios.

You can see them tonight at Knickerbockers, but right now they join us on Hear Nebraska FM. Ladies and gentlemen, here is Lonely Horse. - Chance Solem-Pfeifer

Lonely Horse fronting his eponymous band at the Ten Eleven.
According to the flyer, Saturday night was the “Rockin’ for Racks” breast-cancer benefit show at the Ten Eleven. The only possible indication in the room was propped up behind the bar — a presumably empty breast self-exam kit that appeared to be a leftover from the 1970s. I didn’t see anyone lining up for “free hand mammograms,” either.

Lonely Horse hit the stage at 9:30 with acoustic opener “The Racist and I,” which happens to be my favorite of their songs. It’s reminiscent of old Marcy Playground (not the singles) with singer Lonely Horse (actual name) mimicking John Wozniak’s breathy croon almost perfectly. According to the band’s Myspace page, Lonely Horse plays “Native American story music” — though you probably wouldn’t have gleaned that based solely on the music were it not for the brief chanting at the end of their second song, “Tall Grass.” They follow that with “Seven Sisters,” which opens up with drummer Justin Garcia playing at an almost Thursday-ish panic, then shifting into more straightforward indie pop. By song’s end, Lonely Horse’s voice sounds so downtrodden you expect to hear his heart breaking over the PA.

Guitarist Fernando Garcia fills in appropriate solos and electric accompaniment when applicable. His parts give the band a more accessible, contemporary sound. Fernando does tend to drown out Lonely Horse’s acoustic, which could be corrected by tinkering with the mix. Since the emotional quality of the performance is intrinsically attached to Lonely Horse himself, drowning him out tends to detract from the overall experience.

Moving away from the Ryan Adams-esque “Lloyd and Karen Walten,” Justin Garcia and bassist Andrew Elizalde build slowly into the more energetic “Seven Brothers,” with the kick and thump of the bass driving the swell of instrumentation. Justin Garcia crashes his cymbals in fits of controlled chaos, while Lonely Horse bounces across the stage. For closer “The Sun and I,” Lonely Horse swaps his acoustic for the electric guitar that had been lying derelict on the floor throughout the set. Switching guitars appeared to cause some technical difficulties, marring what would have probably been a very impressive closer. It ultimately comes together with all four members singing, “I’m a dead man, I grew my horns and grew my fangs just a couple of days ago,” followed by an erratic climax in which Lonely Horse grabs an extra drumstick and makes sure the cymbals keep crashing. — Steven Gilmore

© 2009 San Antonio Current - SAN ANTONIO CURRENT

Local rock band Lonely Horse was one vote away from missing the Afropunk Battle of the Bands in June. An online vote determined the 16 qualifiers, sending the rock duo of Nick Long (guitar, vocals) and Travis Hild (drums) flagging down strangers in downtown San Antonio for votes before the deadline.

They finished in a tie for 16th.

It earned them a trip to New York City for the contest, and the band impressed judges to earn one of four spots in the battle finals on July 10, with the winner getting $3,000 and a spot in Afropunk’s annual festival on August 23 and 24 in Brooklyn.

Lonely Horse has gained a local following for its passionate live shows, and is now branching out. - Lorne Chan

Just under a year ago the sonic powerhouse of Travis Hild (Heavy Foot) and Nick Long (Lonely Horse) seemed poised to blow up – before they spontaneously combusted, that is. The shamanistic, dynamic duo, after shopping their demo around to the few but mighty major record labels still alive, seemed destined to open up tours with Jack White, score coveted slots at ACL and visit the set of Ellen to showcase their riveting live performance – something they are actually in the process of working on. - San Antonio Current