Untold River - “Sleeping City Cowboy”
Untold River is the debut solo project from Ciaran Egan and “Sleeping City Cowboy” is the first of hopefully many future releases.
This track moves slowly and dreamlike, having the vibe of a song that would be played during the final credits of a movie because of the reflective mood that it creates. it maintains the standard band instruments and has a fantastic ‘live performance’ feel to it. No extra bells and whistles are present, which is fine, because they are certainly not needed. There are no ear candy effects– just the instruments and they are an absolute joy to listen to.
The tone has been elegantly crafted. “Sleeping City Cowboy” has some just stunning slide guitar that gives it a wonderfully peaceful and dreamy feel to the overall atmosphere. Organ and mellotron do a lovely job of adding padding to the song, helping craft a vintage vibe. Drums, an acoustic guitar, and a tremolo guitar softly surround the vocal with warmth. The singing style has a 1970s feel to it, and sounds like one take. This is a really beautiful song.
Egan states, “Living in the city can sometimes detach you from what’s real, because it can all get so fast-paced — and this song depicts a fallout between two cowboys from the city, with one of them calling out the other for their behaviour. It’s also a tale of two people becoming distant from each other, leading to a final straw moment with the lyrics being ‘you went and took it, more than you can chew.’”