Jake Blount - Single-Footing Horse
Jake Blount closes out a decade and a half in traditional string music with a wily, political, and seductive tribute to the work and mentors who have helped shaped him, writes Bee Delores
Single-Footing Horse is not a tearful goodbye. It's simply a closing of a very fulfilling creative chapter. Jake Blount built his artistic career on string band music, excavating the roots of the genre with a fresh veneer for a contemporary audience. It's been seven years since his last string band record, Spider Tales, a decision that had him focus on quality over quantity. "I just don't believe in making records unless I have something important to say," he wrote on Instagram last month.
Right now, he's chosen to celebrate where he's been with "a statement of gratitude for the places and teachers who have shaped me," he added. He officially shuts the door on "Jake Blount" as listeners have known him on December 31, 2026, with plans to unveil a new name and new sound in the new year. Blount sheds his skin across Single-Footing Horse, a 15-song testament to his sharp musicianship and ability to compelling narratives that stretch and bend with time. Such accomplished players as fiddler Judy Hyman, Horrseflies banjo-uke player Jeff Claus, guitarist Ethan Hawkins, bassist Felix Sartori and banjo player Cap Cooke paint their respective contributions with a feral energy. Moments like "Black Tar on a Stick" and "Snowshoe" leap from the instruments with a kinetic voltage that feels out of this world.
"Abe's Treat" is akin to galloping among the hills on an untamed stead, the playing so rhythmic and incisive that the arrangement brushes against the listener's cheeks. Elsewhere, "Pork Fat Makes My Chicken Tan," adapted from a version by the Horseflies, greases up the Appalachian frying pan with sizzling lard, whereas "Garfield's Blackberry Blossom" is so tightly wound that it could very well snap the eardrums. The work is taut, but unmistakably provocative, cutting into the tapestry of old-time music that is nothing short of a marvel.
"Working on a Building," featuring Megan Jean on additional vocals, slides into the gut with a seductive squirm. Blount's voice is both languid and rooted into the earth. And that's just the way of his talents, cultivated over the past nine years of blood, sweat, and tears in the studio and on the road. Blount lunges forward with a similar vocal attack in "Country Blues," a song from Dock Boggs, that feels haunted, perhaps even cursed.
Blount saves the best for last. "When the Angels Call My Name," featuring vocalist Cathy Fink and guitarist Augustus Tritsch, closes out the album with a deep moan so moving that you won't be able to forget it. Tritsch's guitar solo plucks the darkest strings of the human experience, unpacking a lonesome, tired sigh to strain the last vestiges of misery for the body. There are few songs (and quite frankly albums) that strike hot coal like this one, and it appropriately bids adieu to the Jake Blount we've known.
Single-Footing Horse is an ending and a beginning, one of profound reflection and fearless ambition. Blount pours every once of his being into the record, and it never feels like an exhaustive exercise. Quite the contrary. It's accomplished, wide-reaching, and heartfelt.
