Old Hoss is stranded on the way home for the holidays in his rollicking, twangy new holiday single Small Town Christmas Eve — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
If you’re already familiar with Mid-Atlantic, the debut album by Toronto’s Old Hoss, then this song should already have a spot on your seasonal playlist. But for the uninitiated, Small Town Christmas Eve is a timely introduction to Old Hoss’s raw brand of garage country.
Old Hoss is the alter ego of Kris Gies, who over the past few years has found himself transitioning from bass duties in hard rockers Flamingo Bay to forging his own distinct path as a solo artist. The crackling energy on Mid-Atlantic was captured with the help of producer Steve Bigas, an old friend who relocated his Hamilton studio / label Porcelain Records to Raleigh, N.C.
Armed with his bedroom demos, Kris and his guitar headed south in his 2008 Ford F150 and he, Steve and some friends and neighbours banged out Mid-Atlantic in true old-school fashion, song count-ins and all. Small Town Christmas Eve sticks to that formula, and the story that inspired it is equally grounded in truth:
“Tryin’ to get home but my truck broke down
Is it Christmas alone in the old small town?
So I gotta get my thumb out or wait for a Greyhound.”
“Small Town Christmas Eve has some truth in it,” Gies says. “I once lived in Bonnyville, Alberta working at the local radio station. My truck actually did breakdown on Christmas Eve. I was able to hop a Greyhound in the end.” It’s not the only road-worthy tale in Mid-Atlantic. “A common theme in these songs — though not intentional — is hitting the road, seeking thrills and living your life,” Kris says. “So the journey to the States to record made even more sense to properly bring these songs to fruition.”
While Neil Young and Tom Petty are two of Kris’s primary touchstones, he also cites Canadian artists Corb Lund and Matt Mays as influences, along with Johnny Cash, and specifically his guitarist Luther Perkins, whose single-note, untrained sound is all over Mid-Atlantic. It all adds up to a seemingly natural move into the Americana music world, and one he’s excited to keep building upon.
“Putting these songs together made me sing and play more guitar,” he says. “Eventually I realized if it’s going to get done I would have to embrace a full leadership role and run the band myself. I had to get out of my comfort zone, and with the help of Steve I was able to take the bull by the horns and bring these songs to life.”
Check out Small Town Christmas Eve above, sample the rest of Mid-Atlantic below, and get more Old Hoss on his Linktree, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
