by rudyards | June 26th, 2011
Horseshoe - (Houston, TX )
An acid rock-loving quintet with a distinct country twang, Horseshoe rose from the debris of Tab Jones, a band that somehow fused rootsy authenticity with the twisted gospel of Pink Floyd’s crazed former leader, Syd Barrett. After that group sputtered in 1992, lead singer Greg Wood, drummer Eddie Hawkins, and guitarist Scott Daniels launched Horseshoe in 1994 with bassist Ben Collis and guitarist Cary Winscott. The burly son of a truck driver with a soft spot for Merle Haggard, Wood had been jotting down lyrics for years — and with input from Daniels and Hawkins, the tunes came pouring out faster than the band could learn them. By June 1995, Horseshoe was putting its ideas on tape with Hawkins, a competent engineer, behind the boards. But money problems ensured that it would be a while before the material could make it to CD. That partly explains the pieced-together feel of the band’s sprawling, fitfully brilliant 1996 debut, King of the World, which enjoyed national distribution on Houston’s Justice Records. A year after its release, Hawkins, Horseshoe’s steadying element, left the group to focus on family life. The band hung in there for a while with new drummer Michael Fischer, before hanging it up for good in 1999. After a harrowing series of personal setbacks and life-threatening medical woes, Wood re-emerged in 2002 with the solo album Ash Wednesday. ~ Hobart Rowland, All Music Guide
