fIREHORSE by Tim Easton – Album Review

by Bill Kurzenberger

Renowned Ohio-grown guitarist/singer/songwriter Tim Easton recently released his fourteenth studio album, the noteworthy fIREHORSE. Born and raised in Akron, Easton has been widely recognized as a quintessential North American troubadour from the Buckeye state to his home base in Nashville, and far beyond. Before embarking on an ambitious tour taking him from the East Coast to Alaska to western Europe in coming months, Tim quickly followed up with a solo dedication named Songs For Bill for his fallen friend, also included in this review.

Tim Easton

fIREHORSE is a substantial release for the bard as his first full album since 2024, recorded this winter at Club Roar Recording during a recovery break from touring. On this LP Easton is once again backed by the album’s producer and multi-instrumentalist Kevin Nolan along his brother Matt, who work together as members of Lainey Wilson’s band, joined by bassist Tommy Scifres and Nashville vocalist Emma Zinck for these sessions.

The album signifies a personal renaissance of sorts for Easton, as noted in its astrologically significant title. Intentionally, he released it at the dawn of the Chinese New Year bearing the same name, following a limited vinyl drop in January. Beginning on February 17th 2026, the Year of the Fire Horse is described as bringing bold, energetic, and transformative energy to those who are open to receive it. Notably this is the first Year of the Fire Horse since Tim’s year of birth in 1966; the next will not occur for another sixty years. The cover artwork was designed and painted by Tim’s sister Susan Easton Burns and hangs in his living room, equally inspiring the album’s concept as he has written a myriad of songs below it.

fIREHORSE starts earnestly with “River,” a stripped-down Memphis blues stomp reimagined and rearranged from its initial 2024 single release when named “Ain’t That a River.” Embellishing each verse with the original song title, Easton vividly describes the raw natural force of the rushing waters. “What brings us what we need, what brings us to our knees,” Tim sings in a manner recalling Bob Dylan circa 1980s-90s with the benefit of Zinck’s harmony vocals on the refrains. Not coincidentally, he counts Dylan’s 1997 album Time Out Of Mind as a primary influence for this album.

“Heaven & Hell” meanders in with a quizzical riff and an indiscernible time signature. After settling into folk rock balladry, Easton presents his sentimental side. The heartfelt lyrics are presented as a songwriter’s version of wedding vows, promising to hold his soulmate “through thick and thin” and “heaven and hell.”

Reflective at times, Easton showcases the depth and breadth of his songwriting craft, owing as much to his Ohio roots as to his well-established Nashville presence and residencies.

Tim’s acoustic guitar pleasantly ushers in “Cottonfields,” a lonesome ode consistent with his established style of wistful twelve-bar travelling blues sung with a smile. Dedicated to a Nashville-area vivacious vixen with added honky-tonk piano in the background, the country rocker “615 Heartbreaker” is pure Beale Street fun. “To keep her satisfied…” is oddly looped into the intro of “615” and while on-point, the lyrics do not appear in the song itself.

“Son of a Tyrant” momentarily time-travels back to the 1980’s with oscillating synthesizer and chorus-laden vocals with digital delay and decay. The adventurous prog-rock number has hints of 80’s Genesis and Pink Floyd, along with early Flaming Lips. A stunning addition to Easton’s well-varied fare, “Son of a Tyrant” dramatically rises with swirling Hammond organ and Gilmourian guitar lead to a glorious crescendo following the last chorus.

Presented as a quasi-auto-biographical maturation tale about travels from Chicago down the Mississippi River with stops in Memphis, Natchez, Lafayette and a Louisiana jail, “Never Punch the Clock again” is a revelrous song of vagabondage.

As described by Tim in his Story Behind the Song video series, “Don’t Let Your Mind Grow Dark” is sent out to anyone who may be going through something. On this country blues in the neighborhood of Ray Willie Hubbard and Lightning Hopkins, Tim aims to uplift with infectious sincerity to great effect singing “when I’m talking to you, I’m also talking to me.” Recorded as a rowdy two-step with his acoustic tuned to ‘open E’, Easton notes that his collaborator and producer Kevin Nolan “made this one chord song come alive with his tasteful production.”

Producer and multi-instrumentalist Kevin Nolan

“Another Good Man Down” is a slow bluesy jam played with hesitation and hints of Little Feat’s Feats Don’t Fail Me Now era. Lamenting an acquaintance (inferred to be more than one) whose life was ruined by cocaine, Easton warns of the drug’s pitfalls without pretense nor condescension. The polyrhythmic “Hallujah” is pleasantly not a religious hymn, nor a cover of the ever-popular Leonard Cohen song. On this upbeat tune, Tim wards off a devil of the more traditional sort while accompanied by electric guitar with a cylindrical slide.

An old upright piano rings in “Never Punch the Clock Again,” a journey in itself. Musically it recalls late-era Grateful Dead (or again, Feat), while thematically reminiscent of another Ohio-based troubadour’s original song – the dearly departed John Mullins’ “Mississippi Steamboat” – as well as Dylan’s “Tangled Up In Blue.” Presented as a quasi-auto-biographical maturation tale about travels from Chicago down the Mississippi River with stops in Memphis, Natchez, Lafayette and a Louisiana jail, “Never Punch the Clock again” is a revelrous song of vagabondage. It is also the album’s longest and most jammy track, clocking in at over seven minutes.

The album concludes with “Hwy. 62 Love Song”, a countrified ode to the road where “everyone’s higher” along the way. Dedicated to the eponymous scenic highway leading from Monterey, Tennessee through Oak Ridge and the Blackoak Ridge of mountains on its way to Knoxville, this accessible tune is very radio-friendly and should be well-received, especially in the Tennessee valley.

fIREHORSE is a well-varied, stand-out album steeped in uplifting Americana, riverboat blues and country rock. Reflective at times, Easton showcases the depth and breadth of his songwriting craft, owing as much to his Ohio heritage as to his well-established Nashville presence and residencies. Following the lauded release of fIREHORSE in February, Easton quickly followed up in late spring with a twenty anniversary re-release of his 2006 acoustic album Ammunition exclusive to his Bandcamp page, along with spontaneous new recordings in the form of Songs For Bill.

Songs For Bill accentuates Tim’s northeastern Ohio roots as he often does, albeit on a sadder note while musically memorializing his lifelong friend Bill Wise. Inspired by a dream, the solo effort was released last month on his Bandcamp page within hours of recording and self-producing the tracks. As Tim describes it, he “listened to Michael Hurley’s Sweetkorn & dreamed I should make my own album for my buddy Bill Wise like he was sitting in front of me. Billy died of addiction last year. We were born on the same day, lived on the same street in Akron, Ohio. I also thought I should cut a record of my songs that Billy Strings might sound good singing and playing. Then I got up and recorded it. Twelve songs. All originals.”

The heartfelt, impromptu release celebrates Wise’s memory with songs of rebellious teenage escapades of devil-may-care driving, young women and wine. Lyrically whisking around southeastern Ohio, Tim circles from the Hocking Hills back to Circleville before choosing to “settle down in a southern town with the Old New Straitsville Blues.” Easton revisits the recurring river theme at times with “River” and “When the River Calls Your Name,” before returning to Nashville for “Gallatin Pike Blues.”

Tim Easton will next perform this Friday, June 10th in Okemah, Oklahoma at the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival (a.k.a. Woodyfest) honoring the late folk icon, before proceeding to nine scheduled shows throughout Alaska. Following multi-date jaunts in New England and California later this summer, Easton returns to Nashville for the Americana Fest preceding his transatlantic tour stops this coming autumn.