Stoney Spring: “A Team Of Oxen Approaching Light Speed” (2023) CD Review

A decade ago, Stoney Spring sort of emerged from the group I See Hawks In L.A., with original Hawk Anthony Lacques as its driving creative force. And “creative” is the key word here, for this group is not really bound by any traditional or restrictive ideas of genre, but rather lets the music go where it needs to go. There is a sense of adventure to the music that is refreshing and exciting. The group’s first album Right On Heliotrope! was released in 2013, and was followed by Don’t Let Me Die At Coco’s in 2015, The Natural Sweetness Of Cream in 2017, and My Mind Is Flowering Now in 2020. The band’s new album, A Team Of Oxen Approaching Light Speed (a title I love, by the way), continues the adventure. Unlike the previous releases, this one includes a cover song, a Beatles song. The rest of the tracks were written by Anthony Lacques. Anthony Lacques plays most of the instruments on this release, including drums, bass, guitar, and keyboards, and provides vocals. Joining him are fellow Hawks members Paul Marshall on vocals and Paul Lacques on guitar and lap steel. Matthew Lacques and Marc Doten each join Anthony Lacques on one track.

In these strange days when talk of the machines actually taking over has taken on a frighteningly realistic tone, it is great that Stoney Spring opens the new album with a song titled “Rejecting The Machine.” There is a sort of garage rock vibe at the center of this one, which is perfect. The song has but one line: “People are rejecting the machine.” It’s a line to make us all feel a little better about the world, and one to perhaps encourage folks a bit. Might humanity triumph after all? Certainly, if musicians have any say in the matter. Don’t feel bad for the machine. That’s followed by “Faerie Jam 2323,” an unusual instrumental piece that has some psychedelic elements along with something of a progressive feel, all with a blues rock heart pushing it forward. Even faeries and sprites get the blues. Matthew Lacques adds some great stuff on fiddle on this track, a surprising element that takes things in a different direction for a time.

Anthony Lacques released a cool video for “Black Planet” recently. This song is a catchy rock number driven by the guitar work. “Nobody gets out/This is where it's happening/Nobody gets out/This is where the action is/Black rock, black Earth, black planet of my birth.” There is a sense of humor to this track, heard in the line “I'm gonna pre-rock, I'm gonna rock, and I'm gonna re-rock.” Then Paul Marshall sings lead on “Backward Prophecy.” This one has something of a late 1960s hard rock edge. And check out these lyrics: “And they will invent a new language that has no verbs/And they will lay out a bright and shining path that has no curves/We need some places to throw rocks in L.A.” Yup, not your ordinary lyrics. There is a humor to this one too. But I do wonder if the machines will win after all, with a line like “And they will solve their human problem by removing the human essence.” This track becomes a good jam for a while in the second half, and features some cool work by Marc Doten on organ.

There is a funky edge to “Sweet Jesus, Help Me To Function.” And speaking of humor, the title of this song is funny and makes me smile. Here is a taste of the lyrics: “I know it’s only the death of rock ‘n’ roll/I know it’s only the death of the human soul/But it happened so fast, Jesus/What’s wrong with people today, Jesus?/Sweet Jesus, help me to function.” And when he sings of having trouble concentrating, I think we can all relate. That’s followed by “A Team Of Oxen Approaching Light Speed,” the album’s title track. It’s an instrumental track with a loose but heavy garage rock sound. And, yeah, you can hear the oxen beginning to take off, rushing forward. When they break the speed of light, where will they go? “Self Revealed” is another surprise, his vocals supported by percussion. It’s a short track, less than a minute and a half long.

“There It Is, Take It,” like the album’s opening track, has but one line, repeated. There is something of a Donovan vibe to this song. The track builds in energy as the line is repeated, the lyrics becoming part of the sound after a while, and the pace picks up. That’s followed by the album’s only cover, The Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows.” Anthony Lacques puts his own spin to it, delivering a version unlike any I’ve heard. The drum work is central to it, just as it is in the original version, but here the rhythm is different. And the vocal approach is quite a bit different. There is something of a folk rock vibe to it, which gives a different focus to the lyrics. Anthony repeats the line, “Listen to the color of your dreams.”  Then a seriously cool bass line sets “Soul Alive” in motion. There is a ska influence heard in this one. And Paul Lacques delivers some fantastic work here.  

“Get It In Gear, Mate” begins with a great rhythm. I dig that work on drums and the bass line. There is a different vocal delivery to this one. Plus, it includes a Hamlet reference, as he sings, “Got to be cruel to be kind.” In Act III Scene iv, Hamlet tells his mother, “I must be cruel only to be kind.” Things get even stranger and freer as this album progresses, as the instrumental track “Shards” shows. The album then concludes with “I Like All Peoples.” In a time when people are becoming more divided, it’s refreshing to hear a song in which he basically lists various groups of people, saying he likes them. The humor comes when he breaks that pattern, singing, “I like Moroccans, I like to put my shoes and socks on/And get around to where I can/I like to listen to Steely Dan, does that make me less of a man?/I don’t think so.” The song leaves us with this thought: “The future is groovy.”

CD Track List

1. Rejecting The Machine
2. Faerie Jam 2323
3. Black Planet
4. Backward Prophecy
5. Sweet Jesus, Help Me To Function
6. A Team Of Oxen Approaching Light Speed
7. Self Revealed
8. There It Is, Take It
9. Tomorrow Never Knows
10. Soul Alive
11. Get It In Gear, Mate
12. Shards
13. I Like All Peoples

A Team Of Oxen Approaching Light Speed was released on November 6, 2023.