People often become friends because of music. Sometimes that friendship blossoms into a band. Perhaps you’re an employee in the home service business, and you’re out on a call to fix a refrigerator or internet outage. That employee rolls into a home and notices instruments laying around and a Lucinda Williams record on the turntable. The conversation then rolls from broken appliances to discussing that person’s record collection (people do in fact judge each other on music taste), common ground is made, and a friendship is born.
Or in the case of guitar player Sean O’Brien and lap-steel player Chad Stevens, a friendship and band are born. That’s the story of Horseshirt, a Durango-based roots duo who are adding to the Durango music landscape.
Horseshirt will play at the Durango Hot Springs on Thursday (March 28).
It started with Stevens being on a work call and going to O’Brien’s house.
“My wife had a Townes Van Zandt record on our turntable, and he walked in and said ‘whoa ...’” O’Brien said.
“Sean had a dobro on the wall, and I thought, ‘you guys are cool,’” Stevens added.
They then went to a couple of local shows of the roots rock and country-Americana variety, then started picking together.
If you go
WHAT: Roots and country music with Horseshirt.
WHEN: 6 p.m. Thursday (March 28).
WHERE: Durango Hot Springs, 6475 County Road 203.
TICKETS: Music with admission to Hot Springs.
MORE INFORMATION: Visit www.durangohotspringsresortandspa.com.
“He brought his lap-steel over to my daughter’s birthday party and we started jamming in the garage and broke a few strings,” O’Brien said. “People started sitting around listening, and we thought, ‘this sounds pretty good.’”
They went the traditional path most musicians take, playing typical grade and middle school band instruments until taking the dive into the instruments they play now, via the influence of some legendary players; for O’Brien, it was Kirk Hammett of Metallica, and for Stevens, it was players of the Sacred Steel tradition.
“I played clarinet all throughout elementary and middle school, and then I heard ”Master of Puppets“ on a burnt CD my friend had, and I was like, ‘I need to do that,’” O’Brien said. “I can’t play like him (Hammett), but it just inspired me.”
“I played other instruments, piano and trumpet when I was young,” Stevens said. “When my grandfather passed, we got a steel guitar willed to us, and then I was going to see Robert Randolph in Telluride. I figured it out and started playing it, and I’ve been playing steel and dobro for awhile now.”
The sound now is that of a plugged-in yet stripped-down Americana duo. They can hang back and do the acoustic folk thing, but they’re also unafraid to turn things up and stretch things out. Engage them in a conversation about favorite artists, and you’ll find yourself covering some musical ground. Townes Van Zandt, Pokey Lafarge or the Supersuckers, Chris Robinson, The War on Drugs, George Jones or Patti Page are some of the names dropped, which likely leads to artists the two like to cover, which could be anyone. One song could be a cover of a Chris Isaak tune, then they’ll throw a curveball and twang-up something by Billie Eilish; anything from any genre of the last century is fair game.
“We throw songs at each other a lot and see what our sound would work with,” Stevens said.
They also write original music, tunes that will end up on a debut release sometime down the line. It’s a fair, rely-on-each-other songwriting partnership; if one has the workings of a new song, it won’t be complete until the other has chimed in with input.
“For me to write a good song, Chad has to be in the room,” O’Brien said. “He’ll throw out some little melodic thing on the steel, and that will inspire me.”
Horseshirt also plays the first Friday of every month at Cliffside Bar & Grille at Tamarron Resort.
Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager. Reach him at liggett_b@fortlewis.edu.
