Mark Easton - Dark Horse (2026)

This is not your average blues record. It is, as the kids say, a vibe. The album is aptly named and has a dark cover design to match. If you know Tom Waits’ and Bob Dylan’s spooky, midnight blues periods, you can start to get the idea. Add in violins, harmonica, jaw harp, zhongruan (Chinese plucked instrument kind of like a banjo), didgeridoo (ancient Aboriginal wind instrument, yes I had to look it up), and khoomei (an ancient style of throat singing), and you’ll get a better idea. Better yet, just listen to it.

Things get started with a very different cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Gallows Pole”. Easton’s vocals sound like the grim reaper and he adds propulsive snare work on the drums and harp solos that drive the freight train to purgatory at best and maybe further south. The whole album has a definite “world music” feel. Easton is Australian and he incorporates a lot of diverse elements which sound cool and different to American ears. One publicity blurb calls it “a hard driving blues rock record crossed with Central Asian folk music.” A song that personifies that is the quirky “Chinatown” which feels like Joe Walsh in a runaway rickshaw. A number of the selections, including “Playing With The Big Boys” and “Goyo” feature echoey background vocals, almost chants, that lend a religious or at least spectral aftertaste. Easton recorded and mixed the record himself, in addition to singing and playing many of the instruments, which must have been a monumental task. A lot of thought and layering went into this one.

Dylan’s “Serve Somebody” has crunchy rhythm guitar, a pyrotechnic guitar solo, growly vocals, and is generally one of the highlights here. There are a handful of covers on the record and none of them are straight re-creations of the original, including The Doors’ “Roadhouse Blues”, which kind of sounds like ZZ Top in a gypsy caravan. Speaking of the bearded wonders, there’s a guitar-driven cover of “Black Betty” included as the penultimate number before things veer off into an acoustic vein for a live version of “The Drinking Song”, which wraps things up with a stein-raising reverie.

The album was well-received by Easton’s homeboys upon its release this Spring, jumping to the #1 spot on the Australian Blues and Roots Airplay Charts. Now the rest of the world needs to get hip to it. It’s available on the major streaming services and at the artist’s website.