W.S. Walcott Medicine Show

The Brown Horse Band Live at Union Pool (2026-08-30)

I was super busy with shows the last weekend of August and each and everyone of them were pretty damed awesome. But despite this plethora of great live music, I still suffered from pangs of jealousy for all the friends I knew who were in Chicago for the weekend experiencing The Magnolia Johnson show at Lincoln Hall. Of course Magnolia Johnson is the collective effort of the Magnolia Electric Co. and Will Johnson celebrating the life and musical legacy of Jason Molina. If you recall, I caught Magnolia Johnson back in April and was blown away. Needless to say seeing them in Chicago, a town which meant so much to Molina, Songs: Ohia and MECO in a room filled with 20 or so friends and aquaintances would have been otherworldly.

Fortunately for me however, I got to catch Brown Horse on Sunday night at Williamsburg’s Union Pool. Brown Horse, a band highly influenced by Molina, hails from the English city of Norwich, a city which dates back to the 7th or 8th Century. Roughly 100 miles north east of London, it is considered one of, if not the most medieval city in all of the UK. All of that being said Norwich is home to a vibrant and diverse musical community spanning virtually evey genre could possibly think of. Brown Horse, is at the forefront of the the city’s country rock/Americana/Alt-country or whatever you want to call it scene.

One of the things which stood out at their show at Union Pool was how lead singer, Patrick Turner was particularly eager to mention the songwriting credits to each of the band’s songs as they were being played. The band itself, Patrick Turner, Nyle Holihan, Emma Tovell and Rowan Braham is quite egalitarian in that all four members share virtually equally with songwriting duties despite Turner being the principal vocalist, regardless of whomever wrote the song. It’s not often in this day and age to see a band with more than one or maybe two main songwriters, but to have a band which shares the duties between four band members is truly refreshing.

The band opened the evening up with the title track from their latest release, Total Dive which hit the airwaves back in April. Turner and crew would proceed to blast their way through a stellar mix of tunes off of Total Dive along with a selection of nuggets from each of their previous LPs, 2025’s All The Right Weaknesses and 2024’s Resevoir. They started the night off with Emma on bass and Nyle manning the lead guitar duties which provided the band with a harder more rock and roll feel. Not that this amalgamation of the band was bad, (it was actually fantastic), but once Emma moved over to the pedal steel and Nyle picked up the bass things really took off for me. As anyone who knows me ought to know by now I am a huge sucker for all things pedal steel and let me tell you, Emma can really offer up the goods.

Roughly midway through their set Patrick explained how a couple of weeks prior Brown Horse had been asked by Jason Molina’s former label, Secretly Canadian, to be the house band for a tribute concert for Jason preceding the London screening of the (hopefully soon to be released) documentary Farewell Transmission: A Celebration of Jason Molina. He said that since the band had spent so much time learning Molina’s songs, they might as well play them on this U.S. tour. The previous night they took this opportunity to play Song: Ohia’s “Just Be Simple” and on Sunday we were treated to “Nashville Moon” off of Magnolia Electric Co.’s Sojourner collection.

Coming out of “Nashville Moon” the band kicked into “Wreck” off of the new one, it became as clear as day the influence that Jason Molina really had on this band. I mean up until this point you could recognize the hints of Songs: Ohia and MECO throughout their set but with “Wreck” the Molina influence hit you square in the jaw.

The evening’s set would continue with “Sunfisher” followed by another cover, this time, “Real Live Bleeding Fingers and Broken Guitar Strings”, a Lucinda Williams tune with Jackie West, who had offered up an enjoyable opening set, helping out on vocals.

The night would ultimately conclude with “Outtakes” a slow burner off of the Resevoir collection. The two shows at Union Pool were pretty much warm ups for the band who just arrived in the States a couple of days prior as they get ready to depart on a bunch of supporting gigs opening, first for the like minded band Houndmouth and then opening for Drive-by Truckers before another handful of headline shows in the Midwest.

SETLIST:

Total Dive
Corduroy Couch
Hares
Dog Rose
Reservoir
Stealing Horses
Sorrow Reigns
Nashville Moon
Wreck
Sunfisher
Real Live Bleeding Fingers and Broken Guitar Strings
Twisters Outtakes

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