Album Notes

Dear Listener,

It is said that "the mountains and plains and forests of Canada paint a profound picture"
I would color it a boundless beauty, shade it a complicated freedom

(Couldn't one stand in the center of such bigness and feel imprisoned by the vastness?)

I've often believed that the geography of a place somehow insists it's way into an artist's work
Gladly this is the case with this album, Orphan Horse

True as his birth in Crystal City, Manitoba
these wonderful recordings are open, sparse, and honest
real as the ground we walk on
Music that feels as natural as the earth that
shakes, spins, and cradles us

Wearing his emotions on his sleeve,
Epp sings us a magnetic collection of songs
about lovers, lonely mothers, and missed rendezvous'
about the wide open plain, the call of endless beaches
Of the looming thugs and prostitutes of sad towns
and cities with no exit (Junction City)

He sings about faith and rejection, injustice and love
about the people who give up, the people who hold on

The songs are hopeful (My Love Will Come),
confessional (You Should Know), Biblical (Love Is A Camel), observant (Come Clean), and tall in praise (She's High Water)
They are sensitive to the unseen withering
from a day to day life (The Mom Song),
the tragedy of a broken heart (Sophia),
and then the true unbridled love song (Orphan Horse)

In a world gone topsy turvy
Matt's songs look to find the best part of you

then they take you by the hand,
they even pat you on the back

The music itself seems to come from near and far
(Is it not the one true recycled substance on the planet?)
Round and round it wants to go
Walk down the streets of Tin Pan Alley where it meets
rhythm and blues and the invisible walls of Rock and Roll,
the cobblestone of Folk

See where Frank Sinatra meets Ryan Adams and
walks with Sam Cooke to Woody Guthrie's house.

Listen to what comes from the mysteries of everyday life
and perhaps from an old land wellspring
Born anew in harmonica reeds and the far off sounds of piano keys and their big room melody
the beautiful back round vocal
leaning gently on a rhythm guitar
Matt Epp's crystal voice…the troubadour from Crystal City...
Reminds us of the profound picture, the boundless beauty

Come a riding on an Orphan Horse.

-Jesse DeNatale