Buckskin Stallion – Conor O’Neill’s (Boulder, CO)
An Irish pub in a college town on a Friday night — the crowd is festive, to say the least. Troy Schoenfelder brushes back his dark, curly hair and introduces Buckskin Stallion’s seismic travelogue “New Town” as a song “about pain killers and whiskey”; the joint erupts with approval. A dozen university kids tumble, beers in hand, toward the tiny dance floor and start swinging each other around.
Well after midnight, the barn dance is in high gear. All the free-spirited jocularity of an old-time hootenanny swirls through the air. In a Colorado music scene that now finds alt-country groups outnumbering the once omnipresent jam bands — check out Drag The River and the Railbenders, for instance — Buckskin Stallion stands above the rest onstage.
Songs from the band’s 2004 debut Blue Ribbon Buzz dominate the set. The vivacious “Christ On A Crutch”, high-altitude romp “P.I. Jubilee” and the Tele-driven title track particularly connect tonight. The most thrilling moment, though, is a haunting new tune called “Riverboat Captain”. The commanding elegy shows Schoenfelder taking a turn from linear writing toward the abstract. The result is stark horror elegantly told: “My shadow fell from the steeple bell/The river to a lava flow/I anchored my chain of fiery rain/Jenny I’m so alone.”
Schoenfelder’s masterfully fluid storytelling is evident on “Mama Does Her Best”, “Won’t Hurt Me” and especially the wonderful slice of Americana “Aces Backed By 8’s”. Each packs a striking melodic hook to keep the front of the room moving. A high-powered cover of the band’s namesake tune, Townes Van Zandt’s “Buckskin Stallion Blues”, and the best reading of the Stones’ “Dead Flowers” this side of Steve Earle & the Dukes prove Buckskin to be engaging interpreters as well.
The audience consists not only of frat boys toasting boozy one-liners and drinking like outlaws, but also their teachers, who appreciate Schoenfelder’s tightly-phrased narratives. Party animals and academics socializing in the same room — sounds like a Robert Earl Keen show. In fact, it seems Schoenfelder is in the early stages of shaping a similar legacy. Roll over String Cheese, and tell Yonder Mountain the news: Buckskin Stallion just might be the new face of Colorado music.