Michael Rank and Stag – Horsehair

Michael Rank and Stag’s Horsehair is the songwriter’s fifth album in two and half years. Rank used to be the frontman for the popular punk band Snatches of Pink, which was slated for Nirvana-like status before plateauing and splitting up in 2007. Rank hung up his guitar after Snatches disbanded and focused his energy on his new family and baby boy. Five years ago, however, his partner left him, which prompted Rank to begin writing songs again. Despite his punk rock background, writing music on an acoustic guitar was easy for Rank. “I’ve always written all my songs on acoustic guitar,” he says. “Always — even back in my volume and tantrum days with Snatches of Pink. It cuts through all the bullshit and all the masking, and quickly gets right to the essence.” 

Horsehair, like Rank’s other albums, illuminates the emotional maelstrom that resulted from his partner’s departure. “Horsehair” includes songs about loneliness, anxiety, and anger. Heartache is well-travelled territory in the music business, and only great artists can find something new to add to that theme. Rank’s gruff, twangy voice, descriptive lyrics, and acoustic guitar set him above the rest who cover love loss. 

For Horsehair, Rank teamed up again with Stag — his all-star cast of North Carolina musicians, which includes members of Chatham County Line, Old Ceremony, Two Dollar Pistols, Tres Chicas, and Phil Cook’s Guitarheels. He also asked Mount Mariah lead singer Heather McEntire to join him on the record. She agreed and the results are captivating. 

McEntire co-sings on all but one song on the album. The duo departs from the typical male-female harmony seen in most bands, where the woman provides back-up harmony during the chorus. Instead, McEntire sings with Rank throughout his songs, and her high tone vocals beautifully offset and complement Rank’s country gruffness. In a way McEntire tells her own story through Rank’s lyrics. Is McEntire sympathizing with Rank? Is she telling her own story of heartache? It’s hard to tell which.

The musicians in Stag support the album with sharp fiddling, pedal steel, mandolin, and organ. The fiddle and mandolin intro to “Frontier” is mesmerizing and flawlessly sets up Rank and McEntire for their duet. Likewise, the beautiful fiddle, acoustic guitar, and mandolin intro to “Horseman” provides a solid foundation for one of the duo’s more emotional songs.

The record’s seventh track “Horseman,” is perhaps the best song on the album and epitomizes the magic between Stag, Rank, and McEntire. The fiddle grabs the listener immediately and Rank and McEntire ease into a chorus that is simultaneously sad and beautiful. Rank recalls how “The commanding snake-charmer fiddle burns its way into a marriage of Gypsy and Appalachian union.” 

“Frontier,” the opening track, sets the pace and theme for the record. Speaking of “Frontier”, Rank remembers the challenge of singing a slow, acoustic song in the midst of such beautiful music produced by Stag. “My challenge in presenting and mixing these recent albums of mine,” Rank said in a recent interview, “is how to incorporate all these gorgeous fiddle and mandolin and pedal steel and organ performances throughout the albums, while still staying true to that original bare and naked song. It’s like trying to have the best of all worlds. I think with ‘Frontier’ I come pretty close.”

The album’s third track, “Husk,” takes a more upbeat musical turn, with peppy mandolin and pedal steel.  “With this track,” Rank recalls, “ I was committed to the capture of that sun-washed taste of 1970’s breezy and soft folk rock. The pace and the motion of those timeless albums and songs are always with me.”

Horsehair is a superb album. Though Rank might be in his 50s, the singer-songwriter is at the top of his game. With his John Grisham-like pace for music writing, other albums are surely in the works, but in the meantime, savor Horsehair; it’s a gripping, powerful album that will not disappoint.  (+words: chris dishman @altcbeyond +)

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