Jonathan Something - One More Lonesome Cowboy Song (2026) Hi-Res

Internal monologues – at best, they’re a way to sort out problems before they grow unmanageable. Ideally, they’ll also help deal with those less-than-charitable thoughts that don’t need to be verbalized in polite company. Unfortunately, that little “inside voice” can also sow doubt and work against one’s own best interests. Singer-songwriter Jonathan Searles, who records under the name Jonathan Something, has experienced a number of those doubts, including putting music aside for a bit, before realizing that the best way to dispose of that Doubting Jonathan was to rename him, then write him out of existence. One More Lonesome Cowboy Song is a musical exorcism of darkness and despair clothed in a cosmic country get-up.

One More Lonesome Cowboy Song leads off with “Country Rose,” an internal plea to slow down. Alongside a loping acoustic guitar rhythm, Searles sings of enjoying the big city hurly-burly – “Had fun having fun in New York City/But I was hung upon a country rose” – while wanting nothing more than to slow it all down. As Jonathan Something, Searles has done a genre tour (from folk to synthpop, with several stops in between), but all of that change and the hustling for a “big break,” may be hiding what he really needs – “Everybody knows/That peace and love don’t sell like rock and roll does.” The folky “Siren Song” continues the theme of chasing an illusion, to his detriment – “She crossed the road to Babylon/Leaving behind her siren song/To linger after she was gone.”

Searles leaned on his studio production side quest to record, produce, and play everything on One More Lonesome Cowboy Song – a gutsy call, if you think about it, given the influence of that negative “inner voice.” But the DIY gambit succeeds – Searles can seemingly play everything. “The Garden” is a lovely mix of guitar and piano, The otherwise-pensive “Gasoline” contains a tidy electric guitar solo of sorts, and “Before I Go” expands beyond double-tracked vocals to feature some truly gorgeous (self-) harmonies. Lyrically, Searles’s work toward self-improvement shows up strongest in “Gasoline,” an admittance of exhaustion – “But when I yelled into the void, I think I heard my own voice echo out to me/’You’ll never know if it was real or just a dream.’” This is when he issues a challenge to himself – “I divide the line between the mind and set the spirit free/To find the heart knows more than what the eye can see” – to expel that toxic inner voice. Album capper “Before I Go” bids a not-unkind goodbye to that interloper – “So won’t you roll just one more/Lonesome cowboy song” – before leaving him behind, hopefully never to be heard again.

Song I Can’t Wait to Hear Live: “Dancer in the Sky” – Perhaps the biggest-sounding track on the record, an intoxicating slow-build that also serves as a wake-up call – “Where the river rolls, the water plays a cold reminder.”

One More Lonesome Cowboy Song was produced, recorded and performed by Jonathan Searles. All songs written by Jonathan Searles.