Erik Fines, Country Ghost baby horse review

Erik Fines, Country Ghost: REVIEW

“Though Erik Fines has never lived the outlaw country lifestyle, he and his band are excellent at musically summarizing why we continue to love it.”

Erik Fines, Country Ghost (Baby Horse)

It’s hard to determine why the outlaw country sound never died, but goddamn are we thankful it didn’t. Throwing his own mysterious and catchy spin on the now-evolving genre, the new EP by Montreal’s Erik Fines at times sounds like it was inspired by Marty Robbins’ Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs or Waylon Jennings’ work in the ‘70s. Though Erik Fines has never lived the outlaw country lifestyle, he and his band are excellent at musically summarizing why we continue to love it on this short EP. The forlorn and sentimental storytelling, the saloon-piano crescendos, the upright bass riffs, the twang of the lap steel guitar, the acoustic live-off-the-floor chemistry of the band, the heartbreaking vocal harmonies that you can’t help but sing along with — all of this is heard on Country Ghost and it’s simply gorgeous. 9/10 Trial Track: “Country Ghost”

For more on Erik Fines, please visit his Bandcamp.

This review was originally published in the March 2023 issue of Cult MTL.


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