Guysborough musician bathes in the spotlight
Chance meeting led to emerging musical act Horsebath
A few years ago, Guysborough native Daniel Connolly was standing in a Montreal parking lot waiting for a car to take the aspiring musician to Toronto.
Four years later, he couldn’t have imagined the stranger he met there would eventually become his songwriting partner and the other half of the quickly emerging hit altcountry swing duo, Horsebath.
“We were waiting in the same parking lot and I don’t know, I guess we just kept looking over at each other and both of us knew we were waiting for something and then we struck up a conversation,” recalls Connolly about meeting his musical partner Keast Mutter.
“We sort of had the fouror-five-hour drive and we just realized how much we had in common as far as music and travelling and moving around, having big families and coming from the countryside.”
Soon after, the musical pair found themselves travelling together and bonding over their love of music. They would soon partner to work on a documentary project that would take them across the country where they would discover their own talent as a songwriting duo.
“On that trip, it sparked something in us that we knew existed and that we wanted to do but didn’t really have the time to do and so, through that trip, we started writing music,” notes Mutter, who is originally from Ontario.
“And a lot of the music we were surrounded by was a lot of folk and country music.”
The budding songwriters would eventually end up back in Margaree Forks in Cape Breton where they spent their days working with horses on a farm and exploring their ambitions through song.
“Through the mornings we would work and in the afternoons we would write,” says Mutter. “So a lot of the music was kind of inspired by our surroundings and the countryside.”
Soon, Horsebath was formed and as the duo began performing in public, their catchy sound and unique harmonies quickly began to get
noticed.
“When we started, it wasn’t like a plan to sing most of the music with harmonies,” says Mutter. “We didn’t discuss it that much, it just kind of naturally picked it up that way.”
“Also, there’s harmony in all music from all different instruments,” adds Connolly. “I guess it’s just a fun thing to think about with singing.”
Since that time, Horsebath has been quickly emerging as one of the hottest acts to arise out of Atlantic Canada. With a steady stream of shows in Eastern Canada this past year, the duo has put together a full band and kept busy playing large festivals like the Stan Rogers Folk Festival, the Halifax Urban Folk Festival and sharing the spotlight at the Blueberry Jam in Mabou.
Now, with a full album nearly complete, Connolly and Mutter are looking forward to releasing an as-yet untitled work later this year and are hoping to spread their distinctive sound far beyond the Cape Breton horse farm where it was forged.
“For us, we are Canadian and we obviously love playing here but the space between places is really great,” says Connolly, who’s eager to share the songs of Horsebath with the world.
“We are also going to focus on Europe and Japan for the release to try and get out there and perform.”
For more information, visit: www.facebook.com/ horsebath