LITTLE MAZARN – Mustang Island – LP – Vinyl

LP – Vinyl

Mustang Island, the third album from Austin-based band Little Mazarn, is a gentle force. Waves of grief crest like surf on the Texas coast. Wild horses break through long-shuttered gates, only to come back around. Lead songwriter, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist Lindsey Verrill (she/her) joins bandmates Jeff Johnston (he/him) and Carolina Chauffe (they/them). The ten-song collection continues work with Dear Life Records. A full-throated romp through the capabilities of community-minded songcraft, Mustang Island is both naturalistic and futuristic, completely recasting Little Mazarns origins in primitive folk. Instead, the band reaches towards sonic experimentation and spacious expansion.

Lindseys heart-opening vocals and Jeffs singing saw, both trademarks of the project, mix with unexpected bombastic drums, dissonant synthesizers, and a chorus of orchestral oddities. This mid-career ode dances confidently in the creative liberties granted by decades in the game more dazzlingly lively, and honestly somber, than ever before.

The bands crossroads branch across prominent Southern outsider music: On cello, Lindsey has recorded with Patty Griffin and Dana Falconberry. Jeff has played in Bill Callahans band, as well as with Lil Cap’n Travis and Orange Mothers. Carolina is known for prolific solo project hemlock. Little Mazarn has also collaborated with Lomelda to release their last EP, Honey Island General Store (2023), following past LPs Texas River Song (2022) and Io (2019).

Alongside silliness and reverence, including covers from Kate Wolf and Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys, grief directs much of Mustang Island. Lindsey left her job of seventeen years teaching cello at a local school. Recording also aligned with the passing of Jeffs father, a career educator in Jeff and Lindseys hometown of Dallas.

Grief, and the avoidance of grief, is a big part of being human, says Lindsey. You make a choice, and then you grieve for the other choice. Or you finish a meal and literally grieve that it was so good. If you really befriend grief, youre like, Oh, its here, in this pancake, which I loved so much that I ate the whole thing, and now its gone.

Tracklist:

Side A
1. Crystal Cave
2. New New San Antonio
3. The Cloud and The Snail
4. Dark Pleasure of Endless Doing
5. Remember The Night

Side B
1. Mustang Island
2. The Gate
3. Murmuration
4. The Great Divide
5. The Golden Hour