Horse Feathers

folk rock · americana · folk

Horse Feathers is an American indie folk band from Portland, Oregon, formed in 2004 around singer, guitarist and songwriter Justin Ringle. Ringle began performing solo before multi-instrumentalist Peter Broderick joined in 2005 and helped shape the group's early chamber-folk arrangements; Broderick's sister Heather Broderick on cello, cellist Catherine Odell and multi-instrumentalist Sam Cooper all passed through later lineups. The band has recorded for the independent label Kill Rock Stars since 2008, and its six studio albums are Words Are Dead (2006), House with No Home (2008), Thistled Spring (2010), Cynic's New Year (2012), So It Is with Us (2014) and Appreciation (2018). For most of that run the sound rested on Ringle's high, unhurried vocals and fingerpicked guitar set against violin and cello, with percussion used sparingly. Appreciation, released in May 2018, marked a deliberate shift: Ringle built the record around a new rhythm section of J. Tom Hnatow and Robby Cosenza, added keyboards and guest vocals from R&B singer Joslyn Hampton, and drew on 1970s country-pop and Northern Soul rather than the group's earlier acoustic textures. One track, The Hex, carries its soul rhythm on banjo. Reviewers treated the change as a successful reinvention; Americana UK rated the album eight out of ten and singled out violinist Nathan Crockett's string arrangements on Best to Leave and Broken Beaks. The current configuration pairs Ringle with Crockett on violin alongside Hnatow and Cosenza, so live sets move between the sparse early material and the fuller, groove-driven later songs. The band is generally filed under indie folk, neofolk and folk rock.

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