The Painted Horses Drop ’70s Charismatic Folk On ‘A Heart Like Mine’ EP (ALBUM REVIEW)

“I Wanna Wake Up Now,” the first track off Painted Horses’ new EP, A Heart Like Mine, begins as if I just went to grab beers for friends and joined back in mid-conversation. I was a dreamer, singer-songwriter Denys Kozakis confesses in his affable and sonorous timbre. We all can relate: pop open the Sierra Nevada and cheers.  

There’s no fluff, set up, or drawn-out exhibition. I’d say the EP exudes confidence, but I know that the ever-charismatic and equally bashful Denys undoubtedly would deny. Instead, I’ll say it’s honest, personable; in fact, everything about this album has a familial touch. And perhaps this is an inevitable outcome when tracking in the vaulted redwood living room of a scenic Santa Cruz Mountains estate owned by your longtime friend and musical partner, Jon Payne. (Album cover was taken in said living room. Yeah, I know…)

Reminiscent of their 2015 album Ponderosa Pines, there’s tenderness in the compositions and consideration in these tunes, such as in “Every Song” which evokes a gentle Motown reminder of continual presence to a loved one while away. Or, there’s the no-holds-bar Americana frolic of the title-track song, “A Heart Like Mine,” which muses: I keep falling like a fool for you, over and over again/over and over again/you keep coming like a freight train and I keep letting you in. I mean, how sweet is that?  

It should also be noted that these were more or less back-pocket demos that Marc Daniel Nelson, past engineer and now-friend, asked to hear after working on their previous, heavy and brooding, self-titled album, The Painted Horses. It was never any doubt that these tunes would be of equal measure and inevitably converted into their own album which was picked up by Warner Chappell Production Music.

In a very Painted Horses way, the album was a surprise, even to those in their close circles. But, perhaps most endearing is that it was released on the day that Denys and his partner, the amazing singer-songwriter, Laura T Lewis, gave birth to their daughter, Eila. 

With a heart like mine… Welcome to the family.