Album Review: Garry Gray unveils fascinating anthology album featuring the legendary Sacred Cowboys, as well as his post Cowboys work, and announces additional live date following sell out show.

Sacred Cowboys have been – and still are – a legendary bunch of misfits together in various forms since 1982, but always with Garry Gray as a mainstay at the reins along with Mark Ferrie. They essentially began in 1982 as a supergroup with Gray from seminal new wave outfit Negatives and Ferrie from the Models. Purloining the band name from Get Smart and the Groovy Guru, the Cowboys left the Countdown set with guru Molly Meldrum announcing that they were … the worst band I’ve seen in 5 years…A clear indication of how good they are.

Now, in 2024, the band is back together with Gray and Ferrie reforming Sacred Cowboys with Timothy Deane, Anthony Paine and Damien Fitzgerald completing the new lineup.

The outfit are looking to start writing a new Sacred Cowboys album and are playing live.

This live return coincides with the release of the Cowboy Logic, an anthology compiled by Gray and containing a range of recordings from over the decades with Sacred Cowboys in various line-ups (including with the legendary Spencer P. Jones), and Gray’s other post-Cowboys work with Garry Gray & the Sixth Circle and We Mainline Dreamers (with Ed Clayton-Jones).

A recent sold out gig in Melbourne launching the anthology has lead to a return bout in the gloriously dingy and cool suburb St Kilda on Friday, 22 November 2024.

Gray says of the anthology, entitled ‘Cowboy Logic’:

I was looking back at the work of recent years and further back into the archives and remembering the the bonds forged in collaborating to create something unique each time. With this anthology, I wasn’t trying to do a ‘best of’. I was looking for the connecting thread over the decades. I found it when I came across AnDRew Steel’s ‘Cowboy Logic’ painting. I instantly knew what the thread was between this time and that. The main character in Cold Harvest says, “I’m the logic tamer your reason cannot follow….” Setting upon that which has been accepted or respected for a long time – that which people are afraid or unwilling to question or criticize, is the Sacred Cowboy.

The first four tracks are from 1988’s ‘Trouble from Providence’ release with Garry Gray (vocals), Mark Ferrie (guitars), Terry Doolan (guitars & backing vocals), Nick Rischbieth (bass), Stephan Fidock (drums) and guests Ash Wednesday (keyboards), Chris Wilson (harmonica) and Ollie Olsen and Marie Hoy (backing vocals).

Tracks five to eight cover the ‘Cold Harvest’ era with a line up that added Spencer P Jones (guitars)and Penny Ikinger (guitars).

Gray’s post-Cowboys era is represented in tracks nine to thirteen with material from Garry Gray & The Sixth with a line up consisting of Garry Gray (vocals), Tex Napalm (guitars), Spencer P Jones (guitars & backing vocals), Rob Wellington (guitars), Angela Howard (bass) and Graeme Ward (drums & backing vocals) as well as tracks fourteen to eighteen from 2022’s We Mainline Dreamers with Garry Gray (vocals & mellotron) and  Ed Clayton-Jones (multi-instrumentalist) – see my review of their album here.

The opening track ‘Hell Sucks’ sets the scene – an amalgam of Velvet Underground fuzzy beats and and a Cramps style sleaze. The pulse quickening ‘Blood and Soil’ high steps away on a manic harmonica riff and a rollicking pace like a runaway horse and carriage, replete with Stonesy woo-hoos. Gray’s vocal are deliciously sardonic and louche, wild and unhinged.

‘Canned Goods’ shows the Sacred Cowboys do not indulge in one style, one tone repetition – it is a more complex atmospheric track with Gray’s uber cool delivery over sparse guitars and delicate harmonies. Similarly, ‘Trouble From Providence’ is packed full of insouciance and attitude – reminding me a little of the work of Rowland S Howard with the angular scything guitars and motorik beat – channeling a little Jesus and Mary Chain on the way.

‘Things to Come’,’Eternity Ring’ and ‘8 Dragons’ channel a little bluesy buzz with a pop melody and rumbling guitars, ‘Cut Rate Martyr’ is another attitude laden thump with buzz saw guitars and Gray’s almost operatic vocals dripping with disdain. ‘Cold Harvest is as wide and expansive as the desert skies a surprising Beatles-eque jingle and an REM jangle with an alt country tinge. ‘Black City’ is another expansive anthemic track.

‘Our God Hangs’ and ‘Cadillacs’ wade back into a black swampy rumble with their relentless drive and thundering percussion. ‘Diamonds in the Forehead’ and ‘We Mainline Dreamers’ dial back the bluster, pop wrapped up in a little barbed wire while ‘The Canonization of Junk’ has a T-Rex/Stones laid back delivery and ‘Credit Card Christian’ a louche delivery.

Final track’ ‘Inside the Atom’ reminds us again of the many colours in the palette – a more psychedelic, dreamy track that seems to float in the ether, Gray’s voice distant, and almost reggae backbeat to the delivery.

The Anthology is accompanied by a visceral live album that covers some of the above tracks as well as some others. It kicks off with a live show from 1994 when Jones joined the Cowboys, the Cold Harvest line up. This is followed by a rather low fi but fun few tracks from the Cowboys live in 2006 with Jones and Ikinger on guitars and Wednesday on keys. Disc 2 concludes with a studio outtake from 2006 – a raw power version of Bangkok with Gray, Jones, Ikinger, Stephan Fidock and Nick Rischbieth, giving a clearer idea of what the 2006 outfit sounded like.

What is initially surprising is the absence of what was probably the Sacred Cowboy’s more commercially successful single ‘Nothing Grows In Texas’, and yet for me this absence does not take way the value of the album: in fact it augments it by removing any distractions, highlighting the strength of the various bands Gray has been involved in and highlighting other material that was often overlooked. This anthology accentuates the fact that the Sacred Cowboys and the ensuing iterations helmed by Gray were a lot more complex and subtle than their reputation would suggest, displaying a style and panache as well as a diversity in songwriting and delivery. The singular connection of Gray throughout the material creates the golden thread that weaves his creative influences across the material.

This is a little sonic treasure: a valuable archive of some of te most exciting and innovative stuff over the decades. ‘Cowboy Logic’ is out through the fabulous Kasumuen Records who are doing an amazing job in preserving for posterity some exquisite jewels from the past. To listen to the whole album, you will need to purchase the physical copies – there is no streaming available.

Details of the gig can be found below with tickets available here.

Feature Photograph: Cait Wood