Artist: Holly Golightly & the Brokeoffs
Album: Clippety Clop
Label: Transdreamer Records
Release Date: 5.4.18
A rather sweet and altogether charming idea on its face, Clippety Clop is a horse of a different color. Entirely devoted to everything equine, and almost certainly the first LP to ever deal solely with that kind of animal, the tenth album from Holly Golightly & the Brokeoffs – featuring Golightly and guitar-wrangling partner Lawyer Dave, who run a horse rescue together in Georgia – moseys along at a shuffling, easygoing pace, blending a sassy punk attitude with primal, stripped-down Americana. Although mostly sunny, the LP occasionally takes a dark turn.
Immersed in dreamy Southern Gothic murk and mystery, “Horses in the Mines” – its atmosphere somehow both oppressive and expansive, with percussive skitters and rattles caught up in a brief electric guitar freak out – wearily trots into the void and “Carpet of Horses” swings as if caught in a hangman’s noose. Such ghostly encounters are rare, however, in Clippety Clop, a ragged, gritty covers record with songs about horses that mixes traditional instrumentation with raw distortion in a usually sunny, minimalist fashion. Given Golightly’s appearance on the White Stripes’ gem “It’s True That We Love One Another,” that shouldn’t come as a surprise. Unlike the volatile chemistry of Jack and Meg White, however, Golightly and Lawyer Dave’s torn-and-frayed vocal harmonies are marriages that work, even if they don’t always seem made for each other, as the loose, gnarled country blues of “Mule Skinner” and “Pinto Pony” smile and wink at the cheeky swagger of “Jinny Mule” and the chunky gait of “Kill Grey Mule” smartly picks up the pace.
Not all of the horses in Clippety Clop have it so good. Some you want to ride all day. Some are broken down and beaten up, but still defiant. There are no fairy tales on Clippety Clop, where “Strawberry Roan” waltzes the night away and “Mule Train” fries up an oozing spread of Heartland rock ‘n’ roll. Playful at times, as Lawyer Dave can be heard in the background making “pew, pew” toy-gun sounds and yelling “yee-haw” on the record, Clippety Clop doesn’t mind swearing and it’ll spit chewing tobacco all over your boots. Let’s saddle up and ride.
—Peter Lindblad
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