Cory Hanson’s third solo LP, Western Cum is a high-stepping, hard-dancing, first love/heartbreak, tonight’s-the-night, future nostalgia kind of good time. It follows unpredictably upon 2021’s luminescent Pale Horse Rider, upping the heat to molten levels, six strings at a time.
Insatiably in search of greener pastures, Cory draws with vampiric glee from the madness coursing through the world outside; a spiraling shitshow that’s reawakened a compulsion in him – an old ambition, even! - to crush brutality and elegance together into a fresh set of rocks to hail down upon us, with the sound of guitars through the speakers of luxury cars. Harmony leads are just the tip of the iceberg, but be quick – the guitars like to melt everything in their path! The eight songs of Western Cum are driven by the stalwart bass of brother Casey Hanson and the drums of Evan Backer with a few passing acoustics from Cory and the intermittent spirit-moans of Tyler Nuffer’s steel guitar. The quartet, dubbed ‘Slowhand’– two guitars, bass and drums – acts as beat-making principle/phrasing device, as well as template for Cory’s layers of six-string and vocal textures.