Hush the Wild Horses

Hush the Wild Horses is an intimate, unflinching glimpse into the trials and triumphs of singer-songwriter Rachel Harrington. A former student of acclaimed author Ann Cummins (Red Ant House), Harrington once told an interviewer, ‘If anything, I think I'm actually a short-story writer.’ All 11 tracks on Hush the Wild Horses are originals including ‘Susanna’, a sweetly rendered tribute to legendary Nashville songwriter Guy Clark, which was co-written with her son, Mandolin Hooper. The title-track refers to Harrington's new-found life partner who ‘laid down in my bed and hushed the wild horses in my head.’ The track ‘I Meant to Go to Memphis’ recounts the sixth-generation Oregonian's harrowing bout with cocaine addiction. ‘Mekong Delta’ is in memory of an uncle who committed suicide after serving in Vietnam.

The album's most lyrically wrenching and musically compelling song, ‘Child of God’, is a disturbing confessional about child molestation, wrapped in a rolling blues propelled by the distinctive cadence of a field holler. Calling it Americana doesn't change the fact that Hush the Wild Horses represents the fiercely honest and thoroughly engaging expression of authentic country music, which used to be the standard issue product of Music City USA.