Experimental folk band Foot Ox today announces Topanga Canyon, a new album out October 23 via Lauren Records. The band also shares lead single, “Prairie Song,” a song reflecting on grief, memory, and the ways people remain with us after they are gone.
Stream "Prairie Song" here.
“Prairie Song” feels like the ocean. There’s country music in it – pedal steel, fiddle, big open sky – but it never quite belongs to any tradition. Teague Cullen and Germaine Dunes, both with unmistakable voices, somehow fit together perfectly.
On paper, the orchestration sounds like it shouldn’t work, but it all comes together into something completely honest, familiar, and new, sounding exactly as it should. The song grew from a friend’s experience losing a parent, but Cullen wrote it from the parent’s perspective, offering reassurance that they are not really gone, but have instead become part of everything around us.
The song sits third on the tracklist of Foot Ox's upcoming album, Topanga Canyon, which you can presave here.
Foot Ox is an experimental folk band from Portland, Oregon, originally formed by songwriter Teague Cullen in Tempe, Arizona, in 2007. Foot Ox is a revolving door of friends and collaborators. The current incarnation brings together musicians from Kisser, AJJ, Pigeon Pit, iji, Lake, and Meernaa, alongside longtime Foot Ox members, creating a sound that is intimate, adventurous, and quietly psychedelic. Inspired by dreams and old films, the songs drift through love, grief, humor, landscapes, and hope using abstract imagery and subtle, unconventional arrangements. Whether stripped down to Intimate folk songs or swelling into a full band, Foot Ox has always embraced contrast, allowing each record to become a document of the friendships that made it possible.
The Topanga Canyon LP vinyl is also available for preorder on our store.