The Long Ryders – High Noon Hymns

Popular music never ceases to amaze. For those that stick with me, you are about to read a rapturous, glowing review for an excellent forthcoming album by a band that released their first album in 1984. A band that, despite acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic, have remained unknown to me until now. Better late than never, I guess, when it comes to this particular party.

The story begins, in The Long Ryders band leader Sid Griffin’s own words – “I had this idea of what would happen if the top of the band, the guitars and the vocals were very West Coast (1960s), punchy and beautiful, but the bass and drums were as aggressive as a punk band”. His new band, The Long Ryders, with the ‘y’ being a tribute of sorts to folk rock band The Byrds, would become pioneers of what would later be known as the Alt-Country scene.

The band was formed in 1981 by aforementioned punk guitarist Sid Griffin and drummer Greg Sowders and they self-funded the recording of their first release, a 5-track EP called 10-5-60 in 1983, produced by ex-Sparks guitarist and former Beach Boys engineer Earle Mankey, and distributed by the record label that Sid Griffin was working for at the time. The speed of the success of the EP surprised everyone and in 1984, after some personnel changes, they had a new record deal and a debut album Native Sons (including a guest appearance from Byrds vocalist Gene Clark) under their belt.

Tours in the US and Europe would follow, along with a second album, but a run of bad luck, and some questionable decision-making, saw this first incarnation of the band run out of steam, with the first leg of the journey ending in 1987. Fortunately, the legacy of the music they left behind was enduring, and it was also inspirational to bands like Wilco and Drive by Truckers who latched onto the harder edge of Alt-Country, as an alternative to the mainstream country performers of the 90s such as Garth Brooks and Shania Twain.

It wasn’t until 2014 that the band were re-united for a concert in celebration of Earle Mankey that sparked a run of more live shows. So began a re-launch, with Cherry Red releasing a re-issue boxset, and tours of Europe and the west coast of America. In February 2019 Cherry Red Records in London and Omnivore in the USA released the first new Long Ryders album in over thirty years, Psychedelic Country Soul, which reached No. 1 in the US Americana chart. The momentum from this renewal carried them through the pandemic and the death of bassist Tom Stevens in 2021, and 2023 saw the release of September November, having been honoured with a trailblazer award from the American Music Association in 2022 to recognise their influence in the Americana genre.

And so, we get to the present day, and new album High Noon Hymns. Maybe the reason they stayed under my radar, until now, was our collective obsession with assigning bands to a genre. On High Noon Hymns I can hear, amongst the jingle jangle guitar and the country music motifs, crossover with artists such as R.E.M., Crowded House, Squeeze, and even Blackfield. Basically, bands that know how to construct songs with meaningful lyrics and strong melodies, under-pinned with imaginative arrangements, and executed with humour and emotion. Bands that delight in weaving a harder, more dramatic edge between seemingly friendly, heart-warming soundtracks. Bands that recognise that art is for art’s sake, who are not constrained by the need to feed a particular niche group of consumers.

This is what resonated with me from the outset, with track one Four Winters Away, bursting into the ether with a slice of country-based power pop, and that sustained me right until the last note of the gorgeously melodic, stirringly emotional final track Forever Young. In between, there is punk attitude aplenty in the acerbic Stand A Little Further In The Fire and (How How How) How Do You Wanna Be Loved?. In contrast Knoxville On The Line is a more traditional country-style tune, with laidback acoustic strumming enhanced with delicate slide guitar, accompanying a doleful, but soulful, reminiscence of a life lived on and along the railway tracks, and that is followed, in contrast again, by the punchy indie rock of Down To The Well.

Wanted Man In Arkansas hovers on the verge of being a twee country music caricature, but has enough sincerity and humour about it to maintain the overall quality and flow of the set. A Belief in Birds is trademark alt-country and notable for a brief electric guitar solo, while the restrained arrangement of Say Goodbye To Crying perfectly sets up the listener’s mood for the unrestrained positive energy unshackled by album closer Forever Young, complete with guest mandolinist Wyatt Ellis and a harmonica solo from Sid Griffin.

From start to finish this set delivers on all measures (well, maybe except for its lack of any discernible prog rock credentials). There is energy, imagination, and artistry. On the surface there is an immediate simplicity to the song-writing that grabs the listener’s attention and that engagement is sustained by the quality and diversity of the arrangements that reveal their subtleties over repeated spins. For the bone fide prog fan this album may take you out of your comfort zone, but this is music without boundaries, it has all-round qualities that should leave a positive impression on any listener’s ears.

And so we end as we started, with a quote from Sid Griffin who describes, more succinctly than I ever could, the rather brilliant High Noon Hymns as “two thirds the distilled alt country genre we helped found back in the 1980s, one third Paisley Underground adventurism yet with a dash of our own crazed soulfulness thrown in”.

TRACK LISTING
01. Four Winters Away (2:32)
02. World Without Fear (5:02)
03. Stand A Little Further In The Fire (3:43)
04. Ramona (2:45)
05. (How How How) How Do You Wanna Be Loved? (2:55)
06. Knoxville On The Line (3:52)
07. A Hymn For The City Of Angels (5:16)
08. Down To The Well (4:02)
09. Wanted Man In Arkansas (4:01)
10. A Belief in Birds (3:31)
11. Rain In Your Eyes (3:33)
12. Say Goodbye To Crying (4:57)
13. Forever Young (4:39)

Total Time – 50:48

MUSICIANS
Stephen McCarthy – Electric & Acoustic Guitars, Bass, Banjo, Vocals
Sid Griffin – Guitars, Mandolin, Harmonica, Banjo, Vocals
Greg Sowders – Drums, Percussion
Murray Hammond – Bass, Vocals
~ With:
Ed Stasium (Producer) – Keyboards, Harmonium (2,3,9 & 13)
Alexandra Spalding – Harmony Vocals (8)
Ben Moore – Keyboards (11)
DJ Bonebreak – Vibraphone (7)
Wyatt Ellis – Mandolin (13)
Tom Stevens – Guitar (8)

ADDITIONAL INFO
Record Label: Cherry Red Records
Country of Origin: US
Date of Release: 13^th March 2026

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