Tin Horse

Tin Horse is a group that seem to be doing everything right – at least if you believe the critics. CLTV News said that they are, “on the verge of super stardom." In referencing the group’s song “Take It to the Bank,” indie-music.com said that it, ” opens with such a good old-fashioned Nashville vibe, I expected to hear Johnny Cash’s voice come out of the speakers."

If praise like that from the press isn’t enough, then consider this, the group has been sharing the stage with country greats for a while now. They’ve opened for Gretchen Wilson, Los Lonely Boys and Toby Keith and will be touring with Diamond Rio this summer. So, it’s a pretty special thing to consider that they’ll be playing the Rockford area at the Young At Heart Festival.

Their website describes them this way, “Tin Horse is the band your mama warned you about and the one your daddy snuck out to see. Fronted by three smokin’ women with fantastic vocals jamming on their red hot instruments (guitar, fiddle and keys) and a full band behind them, these gals set the stage on fire with their power packed southern rock.”


You might not expect a band like that to be from the Northern Illinois area, but they are. Well, technically only part of the group is from Chicago, but when they aren’t touring or recording it tends to be their base of operations. With their star rising as quickly as it is, though, and their CD due out in July (they’ve already released one DVD), you better see them while you can catch them at a show like this. Soon they’ll be headlining their own tours.

The lineup of Tin Horse is Andra (fiddle and vocals), Antje (guitar and vocals), Caroline (keyboards and vocals), Kevin (guitar), Francis (bass) and Kirk (drums). You can check them out on their “Horses Gone Wild” tour at the Young at Heart Festival on Sunday May 25th at 9 PM. You can get more information and check out some music and videos by visiting then on the web at www.tinhorseband.com. - Beet Cafe

Chatting with the three
ladies who comprise Chicago
country band Tin
Horse means bearing witness to a
trio of kindred sisters linked by a
common thread that somehow surpasses
friendship. Th ey talk in a chorus
of laughter and sentence-fi nishing,
piqued by the kind of local
success and shared experiences
that seal a band of relationships for
life. Considering how well they get
along, you’d think they hadn’t seen
each other in ages instead of being
confi ned to recording studios and
a great big tin touring bus (which
belonged to Willie Nelson and Shania
Twain before Tin Horse) that
carts them to shows throughout the
country.
“We’re together all the time, even
when we’re not on the bus,” they all
seem to say at once.
Th is incarnation of Tin
Horse — Andra on fi ddle,
Antje on guitar
and Caroline on keys
(they all perform
under only their
fi rst names) — has
been the most successful,
according
to their label
rep at Chicagobased
Sweet Pickle
Records. Th e band
thrives on recreating
the kind of onstage energy
found in old-school barn dances,
uniting newfound friends with foottapping
tunes that recollect a modern
kind of heartbreak and rocking,
folk-anthem fun. Th e result
is large crowds turning out for the
band’s summer tour, aff ectionately
named the Horses Gone Wild Tour;
plans for a new album; and even an
opening slot for Kenny Rogers last
summer. One venue owner’s son
actually vowed to add “Tin” to his
left-shoulder horse tattoo (the Tin
Horse gals are holding him to it).
Call their success the
result of a slow, steady
infi ltration of country
music into urban
areas, but Tin Horse
knows the truth: It’s the
bond they feel while
writing and performing.
And make no mistake:
Th e songs on Tin
Horse’s forthcoming
boot-scooting and ballad-
touched, countryrock
album are built on
experiences cut from a
shared cloth. Th e refrain
of Tin Horse’s recently
recorded “Something
Stronger” twangs, “Your
love is like watereddown
whiskey, glasshalf-
empty, never satisfi ed me, and
it’s wearing off … and I need something
stronger.”
“It’s (about) a love that’s really
just not doing it for you, and we’ve
all, unfortunately, had that,”
Andra says.
Th eir shared stories,
indeed, sound
like a fated country
song in and of
themselves. But
the three friends
are far from typical
southernraised
country
girls brought up
under the Grand Ole
Opry marquee, even
if the musical seed was
planted early on.
Andra’s fi rst memory of countrymusic
exposure happened when
she was 6. Her dad took her to the
Bean Blossom Bluegrass Fest in
Indiana, and she met “the father of
bluegrass,” Bill Monroe. Of course,
she says, she had no idea how big
of a deal that was back then or how
much it would impact her musical
infl uences in the future. Andra
spent school days in Wilmette
studying classical instruments. Th at
evolved into fi ddle-playing and,
eventually, a love for country that
hearkens back to childhood.
For Caroline’s part, she didn’t discover
country as early on as Andra,
with whom she was friends as a kid.
“I didn’t really get into country
music until I was in high school,”
she says. Th at’s about the time her
dad left his corporate gig for landscaping
work and started listening
to country himself. Caroline
remembers how one day he went
out and bought a cowboy hat and
began spinning his favorite country
track from Confederate Railroad,
which sang, “I like my women just a
little on the trashy side.”
“I thought that it was so funny,”
she says of the song, “and country
music won me over.”
People who aren’t familiar with
Germany’s roots in country usually
view Antje as the least likely of
the three to pursue the genre in a
band. Antje, a transplant from Germany,
says that aside from lederhosen,
there’s nothing more prevalent
in her German hometown than
cowboy hats. “When we weren’t
listening to my dad’s radio show,”
she says, “we were listening to Glen
Campbell.” Antje is a musician by
heart, she says, and her songs have
always taken on a country feel. “It’s
logical for me; it just makes sense.”
A trio of backup musicians travels
with Andra, Caroline and Antje, providing
extra percussion, guitars and
bass while on tour. But while Kevin,
Fran and Kirk are a big part of the
sound, Tin Horse’s writing comes
from the band’s leading ladies. Our
conversation took place just after
practice, which they hold together
on a weekly basis, and it turns out
they’d written another song for the
new album.
Writing seems to come easy for
Tin Horse, even with a busy schedule
on the road. As such, their fulllength
album is on target for release
by the end of the year. For now,
though, live performances and the
Horses Gone Wild Tour throughout
the Midwest takes precedence for
the summer.
Tin Horse can’t wait to persuade
non-country fans just how fun the
genre can be, and no matter who
shows up, they can’t wait to collect
people’s donations for the Tin Horse
Gas Fund. Word has it they jokingly
threaten to leave their tin steed on
the side of the road in town if the
gas fund isn’t up to par (a fan once
helped them out by donating $3 to
their sound guy), but “obviously,
we’re just joking about that.”
Wild
horses
Fiddler Andra, guitarist Antje and keyboardist Caroline set out on tour across the
Midwest in their trusty tin bus, once owned by Willie Nelson and Shania Twain.
» LOCAL MUSIC
Local band embarks on the Horses
Gone Wild Tour to convert country
music’s nonbelievers
Next
shows
7 p.m. Thursday: July 3,
Lombard Fest
Tickets: Free
6:30 p.m. July 13, Glendale
Heights Fest
Tickets: Free - The Daily Herald

Chicago’s Tin Horse saddles up to play area fests


By ERIC SCHELKOPF - eschelkopf@nwnewsgroup.com
Comments (No comments posted.)
Up-and-coming Chicago country band Tin Horse have already played with the likes of Gretchen Wilson, Emerson Drive and Los Lonely Boys.

Andra, Antje and Caroline – who front the band – have strong roots in the area. Antje’s parents live in West Dundee, where the band will play Sept. 13 as part of the West Dundee Heritage Fest.

Tin Horse also has built a big following in Maple Park, where it will perform today during the Maple Park Fest.

The three members, who go by their first names, recently talked about life on the road and what it is like fronting a band.

How are duties divided up in the band?

Andra: We all sing. We take turns singing lead vocals. We all play instruments. I play fiddle, Antje plays guitar and Caroline plays keyboards.

What makes your shows fun?

Antje: We are constantly running around the audience, dancing on top of the speakers. Andra plays the fiddle on top of the speakers. You kind of never know where any of us will be at a given time. By the end of the night, we have people coming up to us singing along with the songs. We were out in Nebraska and some people had bought the CD, and as they were pulling out of the parking lot, they were blasting some of our original tunes from their truck. It’s those moments that make it all worth it.

I understand you have developed quite a following in Maple Park.

Antje: We have. The people there are just the best.

Antje, when you play in West Dundee, will your parents come out?

Antje: Yeah, they are going to bring the whole village. We’ve never played in West Dundee, and this will be the first time in a long time that my parents will be able to see us play. This will be a great chance to bring it back home.

How long has the band been together?

Caroline: Tin Horse has been together as an entity for about two years, but this current version of the band has been together about nine months and it has been without question the most successful version. We have been running like crazy and recording a whole bunch of new material all summer for an EP that we hope to release this fall. It’s going to have about five or six songs on it.

What do you think makes the band work well together?

Andra: We are all really driven individuals, and we have diverse backgrounds that we each like to bring to the table. We were each singer-songwriters before we joined forces together, so we’ve had experience doing that as well. And we just really love each other like sisters, and that certainly helps.

You also have three guys in the group. Is that a good balance?

Antje: We’re inappropriate far more than the guys are, and we put them to shame and embarrass them often. And it’s fun.

TIN HORSE

WHEN: 7 p.m. today

WHERE: Maple Park Fun Fest, Main Street, Maple Park

ADMISSION: Free

WHEN: 11 a.m. Sept. 13

WHERE: West Dundee Heritage Fest, downtown West Dundee

ADMISSION: Free
- Kane County Chronicle

Tin Horse is the band mama warned about and the one daddy sneaked out to see. The group is bringing their blend of southern country rock to the stage at 7:30 p.m. today at the Lena Fall Festival in Lena.

Fronted by three women with a chemistry sure to add smoke to the night air, the band is quickly making a name for themselves on the country music scene and the country music charts.
They are a blend of original songs and catchy award-winning tunes that quickly turns into a high-energy live performance. The woman are girls with a hometown look on life who are taking the country world by storm with their fiery personalities and clever writing. Their music is sure to put a smile on the crowd of faces at tonight’s performance.

Known by their first names, Andra, Antje and Caroline make up Tin Horse. The women said they have been together for two years and their success has been a collaborative process.
“We play a lot of cover tunes familiar to audiences, but we also offer a blend of our original music,” Antje said. “We also do classic rock tunes, which incorporate rock and fiddle.”
They are based out of their tour bus, which has taken them on their current tour called “Horses Gone Wild.” They said they have had the great honor of sharing the stage with the likes of Gretchen Wilson, Toby Keith, Lee Ann Womack and most recently opened for Diamond Rio.
This is a six-piece band backed up by three men on bass guitar and drums. All three women work their harmonies together with vocals. Andra is on fiddle, Antje on guitar and Caroline on guitar and keyboards. The blend of music gives them a unique sound.

“We like to think we tear up the stage with lots of action and we have such a strong backup with the band,” Antja said. “We burn lots of calories with each performance. We have a good chemistry and we try to translate energy to the audience. Our audience is not age specific and our show is all about engaging the audience.”
Each of the women had successful solo careers before joining Tin Horse. They bring separate talents.

“We compliment each other with our strengths,” Caroline said. “We bring elements together to present a cool, fresh sound.”

Tin Horse will be coming to Lena fresh from concerts in DeKalb and northwest Indiana. They will spend the day setting up for the concert and said they are excited to perform in the small venue to get close to their audience.
- Freeport Journal Standard