After I got off the L train at Jefferson in Bushwick last Saturday night, I figured the subway was the last vehicle I’d be on until I took it back home a few hours later. Little did I know that the second I walked into Brooklyn Made, I was hopping on the Mapache train. The Mapache ‘72 Ford F150 seems more fitting, actually.
Music is a lot of things, and among those many things, it is a vehicle to transport a listener into the world of the artist: their experiences, their ideas, their aspirations, etc. In this fashion, the Mapache truck brought me straight into their lives as LA cowboys.
These two cowboys opened the night dueling acoustic guitars and crooning their folksy tunes into the same mic. Not long into their set they belted out a cover of New Riders of the Purple Sage’s “Lonesome LA Cowboy”. As they sang “I’m just a lonesome LA cowboy, hangin’ out, hangin’ on” they let us all know who the contemporary LA cowboys are, and these LA cowboys are here to impart classic folk music upon their fellow millennials.
After an intermission, a curtain parted and the LA cowboys took the stage again with a couple of their buds backing them on bass and drums, while the pair replaced their acoustics with some semi-hollows. They stepped into their recent single, “I Love My Dog”, an ode to man’s best friend. Suddenly a happy-go-lucky golden retriever, tongue out & all, was in the bed of the ‘72 Ford with me as Mapache drove us along, likely to Point Mugu or something.
The twangy guitar melodies and tales of love and country continued to a clearly adoring audience, who sang and swayed along ‘til the end. I personally am no LA cowboy, but Mapache took me along for a ride and showed me what it’s like to be one.
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