by Hailey Green, Fort Worth Report
April 22, 2026
Listen up, Fort Worth! Welcome to The Soundcheck, a new biweekly music column keeping you in the loop on what’s happening across the Tarrant music scene.
It’s a packed Saturday night at The Post — the self-proclaimed No. 1 Listening Room in Fort Worth — when the Cut Throat Finches take the stage.
Drinks were flowing and spirits high as people gathered April 18 to hear the first live performance of the rock band’s highly anticipated new record “High Horse.”
Lead singer Sean Russell stepped under the lights and asked the crowd, “How ya’ll doin’ tonight?” The electricity was palpable.
Three days earlier — on the eve of the album’s release — I sat down with Russell over coffee to chat about all things “High Horse,” and what he hoped this album release ushers in for the Fort Worth rock band.
Russell, 52, shared about a time in his early 20s when he was a regular at Bill’s Records in Dallas. The employees came to know him and curated specialized recommendations of bands and albums for him to check out each time he visited.
“This is where I first learned the value in the sharing (of music),” Russell said.
Artists like Happy Mondays and Oasis, first fed to Russell at Bill’s, inspired the sound of many past Cut Throat Finches’ records, which audibly have a UK-inspired base to their tracks.
But if that eclectic blend of folk-inspired music found in Cut Throat Finches’ previous records is what you are expecting from “High Horse” you better not hold those hopes too tightly.
On this new record, Russell said that he was itching to feel the type of musical connection at home in Fort Worth as he did in the aisles at Bill’s.
“The first real music community music scene I ever saw in Fort Worth was at Lola’s (Trailer Park),” Russell shared, as he flashed the L tattooed between the thumb and pointer finger on his right hand.
This badge of honor gave the owner a lifetime no cover charge entry to Lola’s — a staple of live music in Fort Worth — original 6th Street location that shuttered in 2022.
“The connection felt (at Lola’s) is something I want listeners of “High Horse” to feel. … I want them to hear the stories I am telling and contextualize the music personally. I love it when people listening to my music are able to do that.”
Even more than connecting to the music, Russell wants listeners to feel the Fort Worth music scene on these tracks.
“I want to contextualize the music scene here outside of the stereotypical view folks have about the city,” he said.
Russell also describes the record as “the most personal collection of music” he has ever released and “by far the most singer-songwriter forward.”
The new album is a “blend of alternative country and Americana styling,” he said.
Featured tracks include “American Subway Blues,” written about Russell leaving his daughter after moving her to Boston; “San Antone,” which covers a night spent in jail after a gig in San Antonio; and “The Man You Run To,” a song from the musician to his wife as a 13-year wedding anniversary gift.
The album lives up to the hope of personal connection between songwriter and listener. It takes you on a journey peeping into many corners of the singer’s world, personal family life and drunken mistakes.
Is this newly minted sound what audiences can expect from the Cut Throat Finches moving forward?
Russell said he isn’t ready to commit to that.
“Things could always shift in the future,” he said. “Songs are a lot like tattoos. Some are good. Some are bad. But either way, they show where you have been.”
“High Horse” is available for purchase on Bandcamp and to stream on major music platforms.
Hailey Green (she/they) is a live production professional based in North Texas. She serves as production manager for the Fort Worth African American Roots Music Festival as well as on faculty in the University of Texas at Arlington Department of Theatre Arts & Dance.
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