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Another great review for REVEL - Release Date May 21, 2021
Review: Revel – Nineteen Hand Horse
Nineteen Hand Horse
Revel
Independent
Nineteen Hand Horse’s debut album draws influence from classic country but have a hint of the blues and a dash of rock amongst the 10-track record. Just Another Honky Tonk Night introduces us to Nathalie Archangel’s gritty vocals, the references to classic country artists such as Patsy Cline and Johnny and June Carter Cash are a good indication of where this band sits within the country music landscape. Having said that the melodies in the chorus feel somewhat familiar and, as crazy as it sounds, reminds me more of Abba! The Withering Romance of Trains is a song that’s sure to take you by surprise not least because of the language which is far from family friendly but also the differences in the production between the verses and chorus which brings in modern themes set to a classic instrumentation. It’s an intriguing record which certainly has a sense of humour! Though the group may be newly formed all of its members have worked in the music industry as platinum-selling songwriters, producers or instrumentalists and you can certainly tell as the record is riddled with clever lyrics, impressive guitar riffs and it’s pulled together with a phenomenal production. Nineteen Hand Horse are a modern outlaw outfit and they are certainly ones to watch.
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Media contact
Zoe Hodges,
Editor, Maverick Magazine
Tel: +44 (0) 1622 823920
Email: editor@maverick-country.com
MEET THE BAND: Lowell Stephenson - Drums/Vocals
Meet Lowell Stephenson, our Drums/Vocals.
Lowell is a professional drummer that can play Funk to Country while singing lead and keeping the rhythm and never miss the beat!
He has toured the U.S. and Asia as a member of the Elite Navy Band Ocean Express. He currently is playing with a variety of musicians and his great Motown vocal style is well respected and liked by all who have the opportunity to listen and be entertained by him.
MEET THE BAND: Ralph Ruiz - Bass
Meet Ralph R. Ruiz, our bass player.
My passion for playing music started at the first sight of the red Mickey Mouse guitar, and did what any 6 or 7 year old would do to satisfy a want, threw a tantrum. It was then, my parents exposed me to playing in front of a crowd, family and family friends actually, with same guitar shouldered with a string, I lip synced “whole lot of shaking going on”, thinking I was doing Elvis. I was hooked. Got my first box guitar and a Mel Bay chord book at 11, by 13, my little surfer band was a regular at school assemblies and birthday parties. I then decided that I would like try playing keyboards……got a Farfisa compact ,and after a year of self-learning, I performed at school assemblies and parties. Then at 16, an older, working band asked me to try and play bass guitar with them. I have never played anything with less than 6 strings nor the type of music they were playing, Tejano, oldies and R&B. I did not even own a bass guitar. They handed a regular electric guitar, told me just to use four 4 top strings and try to follow. Long story short, That O.B.G’s band lasted for 3+ years and played all venues from prisons to parks, large hall to basements, with a bass guitar that I purchased earlier of course. When that disbanded, I was playing with the house band at a biker bar; the coolest folks to play music for. Honky Tonk Woman would always knock them dead. That was short lived, but a whole lot of fun. I got serious, went to school with the intention of being a juvenile probation counselor. I was close to finishing 2nd year of CCSF, and ready to transfer to Berserkly. I auditioned to play bass in a latin jazz, rock band with all original music. Well, I got the gig, and because we go to play places like the “The Lions Share”, Longshoremans Hall, The Village, Kabuki Theater, Cesars…opened for recording artists, and all this was in the early 70’s era when the latin music just exploded in the Mission district, an experience that I never regretted not returning to school. Of course, all good (fun) things must end, returned to Pittsburg around 1975 and actually stopped playing, thinking those days are behind me, until recently 2015, and old friend came to my house asking me if I would be interested in playing again. Well, kinda…..we rehearsed off and on with the only gig was a recent car show. I was fortunate enough to be contacted by a band from Clayton called 19 Hand Horse and asked me to jam. Not only did I enjoy the jam, it was a comfortable feeling being “laid back” and easy going. Their music genre and was new to me, and playing with this level of musicians, is a learning experience in itself. I am finally able to extend my musical experience to playing songs I grew up with and listened to. Enjoying this time around...
MEET THE BAND: Brad Sears - Guitar/Vocals
Meet Brad Sears, our Guitar/Vocals.
Brad has 4 decades of contribution to the vibrant Bay Area music scene as an artist, musician, teacher, & owner of Consumer Music & Academy in Vallejo, which received the prestigious honor of being named the “Best Experience” in the category of music stores.
Acknowledging the tremendous healing power of music, Brad is the originator of the “California Team Building Skills through the Application of Music” program used by top corporations to improve company culture & productivity.
He is an accomplished multi-instrumentalist whose enthusiasm & talent are undeniable.
You can truly hear his devotion & love of music through each note he plays.
MEET THE BAND: Mark "Lemonade" Monroe - Harmonica/Sax/Vocals
Meet Mark “Lemonade” Monroe, our Harmonica/Sax/Vocals.
Mark is an amazing “utility player” with 40 years of musical experience and a master of many instruments, some traditional and others less so, and his range stretches from Bach to Bluegrass.
He is an accomplished harmonica player, as well as all woodwind instruments, including sax, clarinet, flute, and nearly every reed & novelty instrument one might imagine.
He has played in many groups, including the America Eagle Band & has accompanied Loretta Lyn, Jerry Reed, the Original Harmonicats, Shania Twain, & JK Coltrain.
He has also performed in the Stars of Tomorrow showcase at the Opryland Hotel & Rose Room in Nashville, as well as two years of musical touring (where he met his wife 24 years ago).
MEET THE BAND: Mark Montijo - Guitar & Vocals
Meet Mark Montijo, our Guitar/Vocals.
Mark has lived in trailers, tipis, mansions, & been homeless. Trash can & fancy restaurant meals; holding the tension of opposites, like string to fret.
Mark’s plugged his guitar on stages from dumps (no, really, an actual dump) to The Whiskey, Troubadour, the 18,000 seat L.A. Forum, and all manner of stages in dives, clubs, & honky tonks.
His mother bought him his first guitar with Green Stamps & he started playing bars at sixteen. He has played guitar with many country, blues, R&B artists, including Bobby Mandolph, Etta James, Billy Foster, Howard Werth, Dee McKinnie, and has been the front man for his own band, Dogs on Fire, which opened for Duran Duran.
MEET THE BAND: Nathalie Archangel - Vocals & Melodica
Meet Nathalie Archangel, our Vocals/Melodica.
Nathalie has made records for CBS/Sony, MCA, and several boutique labels. She has been honored to work with many luminaries including Frankie Valli, Greg Penny, Don Was, Howard Jones, and just about most of the members of Toto; just to name a few!
She has a Double Platinum record for her contribution to Bette Midler’s “Some People Lives” album; the up-tempo “All of a Sudden”.
Nathalie specializes in haunting, moving, and eccentrically clever pieces having been likened to everyone from Cole Porter to Kate Bush.
Her songs have appeared in numerous & film projects, listen on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2JyCqL9
19HH - Just Duet
Sure, it’s a pun to say that the motto of Nineteen Hand Horse ought to be “Just duet.” But, in country music, male/female singer/songwriter partnerships like the one that’s been formed by Nathalie Archangel and Mark Montijo have a long and noble history, one that dates back to the glory days of George and Tammy, Johnny and June, Dolly and Porter…
Mind you, Nathalie and Mark’s team-up was a bit unlikelier than those. She spent the formative years of her music career recording well-received but under-promoted pop albums for Columbia and MCA. Perhaps as a harbinger of things to come, Nathalie recorded and released duets with no less than Frankie Valli and Howard Jones.
Mark grew up on a horse ranch a stone’s throw from Spade Cooley’s old place near Willow Springs, CA, where the sounds of Bakersfield on AM country radio were as abundant as sage brush, keggers and hot desert nights. Moving to Los Angeles, Mark formed a power trio called Dogs on Fire that landed Duran Duran’s coveted opening-act slot at the Los Angeles Forum.
Mark and Nathalie met, fell in love and were married in 1995. Fast forward to 2009, the year Nineteen Hand Horse was formed.
Nineteen Hand Horse: Influences and Birth of the Band
Nineteen Hand Horse likes the old country and western music and if you are reading this, so do you.
But something has changed. Since the song “Streets of Bakersfield,” we started to recognize that country music is more than the hills of Tennessee, the Monongahela River or the hollers of Kentucky.
Country music never leaves the heart even when we don’t live in those iconic places.
We understand that country music is more than country. The stories we tell in song are shared experiences, desires, pains and love songs that echo through those country scenes even as we are stuck on a commuter train or living room in a virus lockdown.
Nineteen Hand Horse is the soul of country in the songs of the country.
When we first got together, it was the discovery of the natural and intuitive blend of voices that sealed it. While we were aware of Nathalie’s songwriting and musical talent and accolades in the pop and techno dance genre, we also knew that kind of talent deserved the support of mature and seasoned musicians to shortcut to the path of performance excellence. We knew we had more than a garage band right from the moment we struck the first chord and fell into our natural sense of tightly blended harmonies.
What influenced the birth of this band within a country genre was the ability to tell the kind of stories that resonate with real life angst and joys. And with Mark Montijo’s upbringing on a real western horse ranch and Mark Monroe’s deep roots in Appalachian culture, it just seemed the perfect vehicle within which to express our stories and mutual respect in performance.
Nineteen Hand Horse was born from the joy we felt when we played from this space, and the driving need of all performers who believe enough in the experience and stories of their songs to want to share them with others.
Come along with us as we ride together on this path of the shared cultural storytelling which is Nineteen Hand Horse’s unique style of country music. Just as you can taste the love in food when it is prepared with attentiveness and loving care; the same holds true with music. Musicians with love for each other and for their music affects what they have to give to the audience.
It's Just Another Honky Tonk Night & It's a Wrap...for now!
Nineteen Hand Horse has begun production on music videos for their upcoming album of original songs! The first video shoot for the song, “It’s Just Another Honky Tonk Night” (written by our own Nathalie Archangel) is a wrap, thanks to the Clayton Club Saloon for letting us use one of our favorite venues to film so early this past Sunday morning! Thank you to the amazing & talented production team: Kerry Gudjohnsen & John Butterfield (Co-Directors), Matthew Gardner (Editor) & Sue Jereczek (Cinematographer). We begin production on our next video later next month. Stay tuned for the debut!
Nineteen Hand Horse poses for a quick shot after wrapping up the video shoot on Sunday at the Clayton Club Saloon (from left to right): Ralph Ruiz (Bass), Lowell Stephenson (Drums/Vocals), Nathalie Archangel (Lead Vocals), Mark Montijo (Guitar/Vocals), & Brad Sears (Guitar/Vocals). Missing and very much missed is Mark “Lemonade” Monroe (Harmonica/Sax/Vocals).
19HH Fundraiser Concert B8 Theatre Co
What a great time entertaining the crowd with a mix of new Nineteen Hand Horse originals (soon to be released) and iconic country & blues songs throughout the evening. All to lend a helping (19) hand and raise money for B8 Theatre Company!
Guest Judges West Coast Songwriters Competition
Nathalie & Mark had the distinct honor of guest judging the October West Coast Songwriters Competition at Freight & Salvage in Berkeley. Along with Brad, they entertained the audience with two original songs. (Big Horse Insider’s Scoop - we’re recording a soon to be released album with six original songs. Stay tuned…)