WILD WHITE HORSES

Heather Findlay is a crossover prog aritist who is well known for her years spent with "Mostly Autumn" as their lead singer. Heather left that band in 2010 to focus on her family and her solo career. After leaving that band, she has expanded her musical output, many times not sounding much at all like the music that was produced by Mostly Autumn. She has released 3 full length studio albums and several other releases. In July of 2019, she released "Wild White Horses" and utilized the help of several musicians. This album consists of 12 tracks, all of them under the minute mark, and with a total run time of over 51 minutes.

The music here is very accessible and consists of different varieties of pop/rock music. "Here's to You" has an alternative- country style while "Just a Woman" has more of a rock edge to it and has Heather dueting with rock singer Danny Bowes. "The Island" is a mostly acoustical ballad supported by piano and strummed guitar and the rhythm section coming in on the 2nd verse. "Face in the Sun" has a slight middle-Eastern flair to it utilizing manjira, which are hand cymbals, acoustic guitar and piano, and is also one of the better tracks up to this point. "Southern Shores" is a bit heavier based on a rock/blues riff. "I Remember" has a folk rock flair with a celtic flavor utilizing strummed guitar and mandolin and Uilleann pipes.

The title track comes in the middle of the album. "Wild White Horses" is has a nice, driving rhythm (emulating galloping horses) that has a southern-rock feel to it. "Winner" starts simply with Heather's vocals and an acoustic guitar. The rest of the band gets added in slowly and settles into an alt-country feel. Ian Anderson provides some signature flute on this track. "Already Free" is another acoustic-led ballad with drums coming in half way through and the addition of the mandolin and electric guitar, but it stays moderately slow and ballad-like. "Cactus" continues in the mostly alt-country sound that is most prevalent on the 2nd half of the album. "Firefly" loses that sound, however with a nice, piano led ballad with the keys played by Tim Oliver, simply solo piano and vocals, which becomes quite passionate in the middle bridge. "Forget the Rain" begins as another soft ballad, this time with vocals and acoustic guitar. After the first verse, the band comes in, but things remain moderately slow. However, intensity does build and there is a nice guitar solo in the instrumental break.

Even though this album has no progressive traits and remains quite accessible all the way through, Heather's vocals shine as always, and she proves she can hold her own in many different styles presented through the album. The main, overall sound has a county flavor, but does not resort to the typical pop country, but leans more in the alternative side of things, which is a great thing. The music is enjoyable, but because of it's accessibility, it doesn't stay interesting after many listenings. This is one that should probably only be played occasionally in order to not become too tired of it. It is pretty basic, but you can't really go too far wrong with Heather's vocals, which is the main thing going for this album. The song structure is pretty standard verse/chorus style with occasional bridges and instrumental breaks in the middle. Fairly typical in that respect, but with nice, well written and produced songs.