The Dad Horse Experience

"Dad Horse is one crazed German who manages to infuse songs of praise with the lowdown blues of T-Model Ford as played by some country/rock lunatic like Hasil Adkins or the Legendary Stardus Cowboy. "Too Close to Heaven" is strange territory indeed.
*I love any album where the harmonica parts have been replaced by KAZOO. There may only be one, and this is it, so I love this CD.*
Dad's take on singing the gospel is a trippy one. On the first track, "Through the Hole", he implores me to dig a hole through my soul so that I can have a "subway for my loving god". I have *NO IDEA WHAT THIS MEANS*, it sounds both spiritual and absolutely filthy. I approve.
How many other religious based singers toss off "motherfucker" occasionally? How many would write a song as oddly blood-thristy has "Lord Must Fix My Soul", where-in the narrator's list of sins is both icky and hilarious?
I know what you're thinking: The Great Johnny Cash wrote many a song of redemption and many a funny song. But Johnny's songs didn't usually put both together, and even "Cocaine Blues" didn't get as weird and rough the work of Dad Horse.
Johnny Cash may have written prison songs, but Dad Horse writes death row songs.
Another great release from Devil's Ruin Records." - Sepiachord

Dad Horse Ottn is the slightly touched, more primitive country cousin of David Eugene Edwards. He plays (using the word in its broadest sense) banjo and kazoo and sings twisted gothic country with something of a religious bent. But, and it’s an important but, he has a sense of humour, evidenced on “Lord Must Fix My Soul”, the third cousin of Warren Zevon’s “Excitable Boy” and the laconic narrator of “Find My Body Down.” Elsewhere the redemption of “Through the Hole” contrasts with his bleak take on “Were You There (When They Crucified my Lord”). Outsider music at its most extreme, this German band could teach its Americana musical cousins a thing or three about dark and dirty music. - Americana-UK

"Nicht irgendeine, sondern 'die Botschaft' wie eine heilige Grippe zu verbreiten, ist das Vorhaben der Dad Horse Experience, die jetzt zur Europa-Tournee aufbricht.
Im reifen Alter von 40 Jahren begann der Mann, den man heute als Dad Horse Ottn kennt, Musik zu machen. Ohne Ausbildung, nur beseelt davon, seiner spirituellen Suche einen Klang zu geben. Die Ohren öffneten ihm die 'American Recordings' von Johnny Cash, wobei er selbst eher klingt (und ein bischen aussieht) wie ein Hank Williams, der nicht schon vor seinem 30. Geburtstag auf dem Rücksitz seines Wagens an einer Überdosis starb.
Auf Gitarre, Kazoo, Banjo und Basspedalen zieht Ottn seit ein paar Jahren sein Ding alleine durch. Und hat sich derweil mit seinen begrenzten technischen Mitteln eine Qualität erarbeitet, die Gänsehaut erzeugen kann. In der rudimentären Begleitung seiner Songs, in der Klage seines Gesangs schwingt dabei die spartanische Intensität des weißen Folks aus den Appalachen mit, Ottns Lyrik verhandelt mit Hingabe die flammende Selbstkritik der gequälten Sünderseele. Keller-Gospel eben, kein ekstatisch juchzender Großchor." - taz Nord, Oct. 2008

Some of the best music The Liver Eater can recommend to any red-blooded American man comes from an obscure German guy named Dad Horse.

Dad Horse Ottn is the leader of a big ole one-man band, The Dad Horse Experience, and he’s created something amazing in what he refers to as Keller-Gospel. In addition to his unique voice, Dad Horse is a master of his holy banjo, and has been known to play a mean bass pedal and kazoo.

Though he takes the stage alone in The Dad Horse Experience, Ottn is no stranger to going at it with partners. With Buried Alive, Dad Horse Ottn is half of the Country-Folk duo Dad & Buried and is one-third of the Pale Pony Brothers with Candy and Don Kojote.

- The Liver Eater (thelivereater.com), Dec. 2008

„... Die eigentliche Überraschung war aber zuvor mit The Dad Horse Experience zu erleben. Das ist die Einmannband des in Bremen lebenden Künstlers Dad Horse Ottn. Er ist – wie auch noch andere an diesem Festival beteiligten Musiker – eigentlich bildender Künstler, der erst vor fünf Jahren das Banjo für sich entdeckt hat.
Hörbar hat sich daraus eine tiefe Leidenschaft zum Instrument und seiner Musik, die er als 'Keller-Gospel' bezeichnet, entwickelt.
Ottn zupft das Banjo, bedient mit den Füßen einen Pedal-Bass, bläst gelegentlich Kazoo und singt. Er besitzt keine überragende Stimme, aber er hat das gewisse Etwas darin, denn in intensiven Momenten schlägt sie um in einen hohen gequälten Ton, der ans Country-Yodeling, die spezielle Jodelvariante der Countrymusik erinnert.
Überdies besitzt The Dad Horse Experience eine immense, geradezu mitreißende Bühnenpräsenz, so dass er das Publikum regelrecht in seinen Bann zog und nicht die geringste Mühe hatte, den Saal zum Mitsingen eines Gospelsongs zu bewegen. Ein starker Auftritt.“ - Weserkurier, Bremen, Dec. 2007

"Das ist Leidenschaft, der sich der Bremer Dad Horse Ottn hingibt und mit Banjo und Fußorgel als die Einmannband The Dad Horse Experience durch die Clubs zieht, mit seinem Debütalbum 'Too close to heaven' im Gepäck und einem tollen Wort für das, was er macht: Keller-Gospel. Da jubiliert das Herz in der Kohlengrube. Und wenn dem nachgeborenen Johnny Cash manchmal die Stimme wegkippt, zeigt sich gerade darin eine nackte Wahrheit, die man sonstwo selten hören darf." - taz Berlin, Nov. 2008

DAD HORSE EXPERIENCE-full length-lord save our souls!

alright guys this project is by far one of my favorite anti-gospel,folk driven,goodtime,feelgood,illwill redemption......just checkout this stuff cuz you WILL dig it,WARNING:this music may(and has been known to) turn you from your sinning ways!

HERES OL DAD!


HYMNS OF THE NEEDLE FREAK: Let me start out by saying the demos you sent me were some of the most inspirationally creative works I've heard in awhile, what's goin on with ol dad these days?

THE DAD HORSE EXPERIENCE: Thank you for your kind words. Ol Dad is hard working to mix down his debut album and an EP with cover songs. Stepping beyond the land of homerecorded demos for the myspace player. Also I am pretty busy organizing my first European tour through Germany, Italy and Switzerland next autumn.



HYMNS OF THE NEEDLE FREAK: So there must be a story to go with the sinful redemption sound of Dad Horse, RIGHT?

TDHE: Guess you're right. Some people who were listening to my music seem to think that I am a kind of sophisticated motherfucker, playing sophisticated and post-modernistic games with the elements of old time gospel music and don't know what else. The truth is I WAS a damned motherfucker, and a lot of people could testify, and God knows that I still AM. My story is pretty simple and could be told in a few plain words: Once I was lost, then I was found. And I found myself hanging around in the corner with all the pious people I was used to grin and sneer about all the years before. But guess what, the moment I was there it seemed to me the best place I've ever been. Spooky, isn't it? So there was a change. You could find the details in my songs. Old school kind of story.



HOTNF: Where does Dad Horse stand on organized religion as opposed to having a song in your heart and an overall fuck evil attitude?

TDHE: Sorry to say this question is too difficult for me to answer, as I haven't studied theology or philosophy. I can not say so much witful things about overall fuck evil attitude, besides I am striving to overcome my own. Actually I realized that it's all about energy and what hinders energy to flow: fear, greed, denial and such. In some cases overall fuck evil attitude for sure. Organized religion tends to become a part of the problem as it is mostly founded in the wish to determine and control things. No good base to let things flow – and I know what I am talking about because I always tend to determine and control things, too! Bad, bad habit.



HOTNF: When will DHE cleanse the evil USA?

TDHE: In time for Judgment Day. Hopefully I will have the opportunity to go to Montana next year. Heard there are not so much people living so it may be a good starting point to spread some sacred flu in the US. Guess it's a good idea to simply start at the top and later to move downward. Send me flight tickets, that could accelerate it.



HOTNF: Has the lord fixed your soul?

TDHE: I fear that this job is too big even for the Almighty, but sometimes I have hope. Give us some more time, please.



HOTNF: So lets talk more about the music, where are most songs created, and what are the main influences?

TDHE: You may or may not know that I began playing music at the matured age of 40 after having followed some other, more darker obsessions over the years. My interest in music started at the same moment when my interest in spirituality started. Johnny Cash's American recordings gave me a great push. I developed a strong desire just to sing songs of comfort and to play some tunes on a guitar or such. But soon I realized that I was too old and my fingers too fat to play that bunch of strings a guitar has. Next day I was presented a four string banjo and take it as something like god's call. I taught myself playing the banjo and that was pretty good enough to accompany myself in singing some songs like „Dancing Queen" from ABBA. I would not name ABBA as a main influence here, but „Dancing Queen" was my first song with a minor chord.
Later I began to write my own songs, first in German language. But this was like that tragic guy who always make people cry if he tell them jokes, and laugh, if he say something sad. Writing songs in English language opens my horizon to write about spiritual topics and these are – as I am used to see it – really serious topics. I think that religious language and the automatic writing of the surrealistic movement have something in common, and this is a point of high interest for me. Writing songs in another language is like driving a car with closed eyes: you could not say where you end and in which eyes you will look then if you re-open your own... An enterprise and a challenge indeed.
Also for me it is more interesting to tell myself a sacred riddle with a song than to create a subtly arranged composition. Last year I taught myself to play the banjo, the kazoo and a foot organ as bass simultaneously, what is pretty much more simple as it may sound. Even if I hope to have some few dozen years still here I do know my days are counted, and most days I have already had were evilly wasted. So I do really not have the time to become a great musician. My decision is to do songs with the musical setting I can easily gain, not to do „music." Others could play them songs better and I hope they will.



HOTNF: Is this the only genre you deal in or are there other side projects?

TDHE: I've had two other bands, DAD & BURIED, and THE PALE PONY BROTHERS, you could find them on myspace. Since I started The Dad Horse Experience as a one man project, these bands were set on standby.
Other important side projects are childcare and painting.



HOTNF: What local (or otherwise) artists have you had on your albums and how can we get more Dad Horse material?

TDHE: On my upcoming albums you can hear mostly myself. For some songs I was supported by Annalena Bludau, Dicki Deia and Timo Warkus from Bremen and for other songs by Jaime Sevilla Moreno and Rafael Martinez del Pozo from Spain. A great deal was the opportunity to work with a lot of musicians from all over Europe at an AA records workshop last year. Rafael Martinez was great in producing the material we recorded there. And this year I did a good work with producer Andree Klose from Hörwerk recording studio. The resulting debut album, titled „TOO CLOSE TO HEAVEN" will be published in the US this summer by Indiana-based label Devil's Ruin Records. At the same time the EP with cover songs will be published under the title „MODERN SOUNDS IN COUNTRY AND GOSPEL MUSIC" at the main download platforms by the online-label Fuego from Bremen. Check them out this summer- it may help if I have to pay the flight tickets on my own.



HOTNF: What has been the response at live shows, and from fellow artists?

TDHE: Different. The best setting for a show of the Dad Horse Experience, which is to transfer solace, hope and courage to the audience, is if I am in a pretty bad mood and if the audience is full of pretty sinful minds. Sooner or later I am used to try to convince the audience to sing along „Lord must fix my Soul" with me, and if they do, this is a strong healing power for everyone and everything in reach, including bad mood and sin. Difficult is it if an audience is full of cynical minds without great struggles inside. Like the people in Berlin for example. But even there you may find with some luck a bunch of people with a good measure of sin and despair – then it works pretty fine even in Berlin! If they know the sin they do more appreciate the redemption I am talking about. Guess the same goes for the myspace fellas. Since I entered that virtual stage one and a half year ago a wave of attention, acceptance, contacts and offers descended upon me, and that pushed me a lot! Especially the positive echoes in the US helped me to feel confirmed with my mission. I feel it's funny that I get more friend requests form West Virginia than from my home country! So myspace is a great benefit from my point of view and I think Ol Pa Murdock shall be blessed or better be canonized.
If you ask for other artist, there are some who claim to like my music. Guess some of these full blown musicians cherish the fact that I am working with minimal skills. Musicians are sometimes like mechanics with a garage full of tools, but no strong idea what to build with it. On the other side some gospel folkie like me is sitting on his sofa with nothing more than a broken off screwdriver and a perforated spoon. But – in all modesty - I HAVE a message to work out with that tools and I HAVE the strong desire to became a tool by myself, too. A tool for god's will or whatever you want to name it: becoming the singing pope of the insanes with a holey spoon between the teeth.


HOTNF: Thanks so much for filling out this interview and for the demos, I preach the gospel of THE DAD HORSE EXPERIENCE to everyone I meet
will I be saved as a result?

TDHE:
Depends on how it influences your actions and your attitudes.


HOTNF: Any final thoughts?

TDHE:
I really hope so. Ask me if I am dead.
(www.myspace.com/hymnsoftheneedlefreakfanzine) - Hymns of the Needle Freak Fanzine, May 2008

"I don’t usually like novelty music, and when I first heard The Dad Horse Experience, I thought it was a joke and nearly skipped past it. A simple description – German guy plays twisted gospel murder ballads on banjo and kazoo – makes it sound just about as unappetizing as a record can be. Something in the music made me listen a little longer, though, and I realized that this is, in fact, a brilliant album. Dad Horse Ottn, who supposedly started playing music at the age of 40 (though I don’t know how much of his story is true and how much is fabricated showmanship), sings songs of sin and redemption and then more sin, for good measure. The music deconstructs old-time gospel folk, updating it and mixing it with folk German sounds and modern melodies. At times I can almost hear a Violent Femmes sort of voice peeking through. Through it all, Ottn’s pleas for redemption and the tales of why he needs to be saved give the album a bizarre, hallucinatory character that makes this by far the most original record I’ve heard this year." - Mike Bigtime @ Paperdub blog