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Keep Me On Your Mind/See You Free is the spontaneous and magical third album recorded by folk rock trio Bonny Light Horseman (Anaïs Mitchell, Eric D. Johnson, and Josh Kaufman) in a tiny Irish village. It shows them to be a real force to be reckoned with—and not just a side project.
Bonny Light Horseman’s 2020 self-titled debut was a spirited attempt to update a predominantly British traditional songbook with a contemporary American folk sensibility, relocating its tales of doomed love and military escapades closer to modern-day, upstate New York. The trio’s second album, Rolling Golden Holy, comprised entirely original and collective compositions but was still rooted in a familiar blend of acoustic guitar and harmony vocals.
Keep Me On Your Mind/See You Free was written over a period of five months in 2023, and in its delivery couldn’t be more different than the oft-cited “difficult third album” syndrome where artists can sometimes reach a creative impasse, thereby running the risk of dividing their fanbase or producing something radically different that takes them in something of an unrecognisable direction. For Bonny Light Horseman, Keep Me On Your Mind/See You Free is a real exemplar of creative spontaneity – and it’s also the case that the band have avoided the curse of many double albums, which often manage to outstay their welcome. While the impromptu nature of the recording sessions means the eighteen tracks on this record are somewhat sprawling in nature, there’s still no real diminution in the standard of the compositions throughout – clocking in at just over 60 minutes.
The record has its genesis in the band’s decision last year to convene in an Irish pub in a tiny community village, Ballydehob, in West Cork. Anaïs Mitchell suggested they use the hostelry, Levis Corner House, based solely on one conversation she had with its owner, Joe O’Leary. Her gut feel for the place – with its aged confines, its sense of community, intimacy, and history, was shared by her fellow co-musicians (Eric D. Johnson and Josh Kaufman, alongside collaborators JT Bates on drums, Cameron Ralston on bass and recording engineer Bella Blasko) – and it’s this sense of immediacy which prevails throughout.
Fans of Bonny Light Horseman can rest assured, though, that sonically, this is still very much a case of evolution rather than revolution – their roots are still very much entwined in traditional folk music with an indie sensibility, but the loose nature of the recording process enables a degree of experimentation and emotion to emerge. While each half of the album has a separate title, there is little to differentiate the songs across both discs, either thematically or in feel and execution. The titular numbers which bookend the album, Keep Me In Your Mind and See You Free, have familiar Bonny Light Horseman tropes – travel, sailors lost at sea/ships sailing, the push and pull of romantic relationships, the transitory nature of existence – and something in which they truly excel – the trading of lead vocals and harmonies. This is epitomised on the title track of the first half, with its stately and minimalist intro sung by Mitchell, counterpointed by the interweaving of vocals with Eric Johnson towards the song’s conclusion.
Most of the album was tracked in the pub’s main room, with the band working in isolation for the most part. However, on the evening of the third day, the landlord of Levis invited some enthusiastic residents to participate. This doesn’t result in a live album as such, but it does afford a serendipitous blend of energies on the album because the audience seems to implicitly understand what is required of them. Patrons were said to have given the band sufficient space to talk about arrangements and record multiple versions of songs, but they also provided a sense of support and intimacy that helped spark Bonny Light Horseman’s creative fires.
If the prospect of engaging with a double album in the streaming era is somewhat daunting, then the singles on the record are an excellent place to start. When I Was Younger, the first single, is a sublime duet between Mitchell and Johnson, which takes the form of a conversation between two people. Inspired by a genre of traditional songs which express domestic frustration at the root of relationship breakdown, it has them alternating vocals in advance of a squalling guitar break before a saxophone eventually insinuates itself. It culminates in the two of them chiming in vocally together – to great effect.
I Know You Know, the second single, has a real sense of immediacy, perhaps unsurprising, seeing as the song is said to have emerged in mere minutes once the majority of the rest of the album was complete. It has an anthemic feel, with a feel-good mandolin-laced arrangement, while lyrically, it again demonstrates the trio’s ability to fuse a catchy chorus alongside the lyrical duality of joy and pain at the heart of a relationship headed south – “I’m a fool if I love you and a fool if I let you go,” Johnson sings as Mitchell’s voice soars alongside his.
Old Dutch is another conversational piece between Johnson and Mitchell, the song title originating from a voice memo when the band were performing at a church with the same name in Kingston, New York. Recorded live at Levis, the song climaxes with the whole pub singing the chorus, “yeah, I got a feelin’”, which demonstrates the degree of genuine connection and energy which developed between the audience and performers during these recordings. Audience interaction is also actively encouraged on the song Rock The Cradle, which concludes with the patrons singing the song’s last lines (“I rock the cradle, Annie/And keep the babies warm”) before bursting into spontaneous applause at the end.
The second half of the album is no less beguiling. It takes real skill to write seemingly effortless, easy-on-the-ear melodies which truly engage the listener in the way that Singing To The Mandolin and The Clover do. On a record that hits consistently high points, Tumblin’ Down refers to the tears falling from a lover’s eyes, a folk rock depiction of a failing relationship, its mellifluous and airy harmonies with Mitchell and Johnson again singing across each other, belying the lyrical sadness at the heart of this number. A personal highlight is the Mitchell-led I Wanna Be Where You Are, beautiful in its depiction of domestic simplicity:
“And I wanna be where you are/Hear the babies out in the yard/And the leaves all changing bright/And you’re holding me tonight”.
With Keep Me On Your Mind/See You Free, Bonny Light Horseman have managed to eclipse the already high standard of their previous two albums. The shared communal and collaborative experience of the environment in which they worked on this record, the enthusiasm of the audience surrounding them and the immediacy of the resulting musical compositions, demonstrate the value of genuine improvisation in popular music and the unique natural chemistry which exists at the heart of this trio.
Keep Me On Your Mind/See You Free is released on 7th June 2024 via Jagjaguwar.
Pre-Order/Save Keep Me on Your Mind/See You Free: https://blh.lnk.to/keep-me-on-your-mind-see-you-free
Bonny Light Horseman European Tour Dates:
12/11 – Gothenburg, SE – Pustervik
13/11 – Stockholm, SE – Nalen
14/11 – Copenhagen, DK – VEGA
15/11 – Hamburg, DE – Nochtspeicher
16/11 – Amsterdam, NL – Tolhuistuin
18/11 – Paris, FR – Maroquinerie
20/11 – London, UK – Roundhouse
21/11 – Birmingham, UK – XOYO
22/11 – Glasgow, UK – QMU
/23/11 – Manchester, UK – New Century
24/11 – Dublin, IE – Vicar St
