I was in this little band called Stealin Horses. There’s a lot of misinformation about the band, particularly where dates are concerned. The Cliff Notes version of the truth:
In 1985 I hooked up with a group called Radio Cafe (Kiya Heartwood, Sam Gillespie, Thom Thompson). They’d been playing around Lexington for nearly two years by then. Within months of my addition we changed the name to Stealin Horses, made a 10 song tape in Nashville, and then both guys bailed (sigh). Connections made during those Nashville sessions, however, lead to a production deal, followed by a major label deal.
When Thom and Sam split, “the band” became just Kiya and me. For the next five years we carried on with a rotation of players like Gregg Fulkerson (Blue Tears, Attraction 65 – R.I.P. 2009), Jon Durno (Roman Holliday, Samantha Fox), Tony Nagy (Mark Selby, Terry Clark), and Brian Bonhomme (Roman Holliday). It wasn’t until Mesas and Mandolins (1991) that there were other members who shared equally in our spoils and tragedies.
Our self-titled album was released on Arista Records in 1988. We toured the U.S. and Canada with The Smithereens, Level 42, Wang Chung, and a slew of others, appearing on MTV, Farm Aid IV, and every beer dive in between. In truth, we recorded the record twice, first in Nashville and again in LA. Only the LA sessions were released. The album sold a respectable 100,000 units, but it didn’t begin to recoup what was spent. Arista dropped us the week before Christmas. They said we had no Top 40 potential.
Rotten as that was, we were one of the lucky bands. Many on Arista’s roster never made it out of development, much less have a charting product and tour support. How well we sold, and are still remembered today, is testament that bad business can’t kill good music.
Dusting ourselves off, we signed with indie label Waldoxy Records (Malaco) and eventually left Nashville for Tahlequah, Oklahoma. After more touring and more drama, we regrouped for the last time with Okie native Steve Kirkpatrick, and Kentuckians Kevin Clark, and Tim Gilliam. We produced one record, Mesas and Mandolines, but the strain of constant touring, no money, bad food, shady business deals, inner-group squabbling (bands are just dysfunctional families of our choosing), and general unhappiness finally drove us apart, with me out the door first. That was August 1992. The rest, as they say, is history.
Patrick Holleran
I stumbled on this Web site while listening to some old Stealin’ Horses songs and perusing information about the band. I think that music stands up really, really well after more than 20 years.
Kopana
Thanks so much, Patrick! We really appreciate that. ~ Kopana
Larry Roy
I have one of those 100,000 albums that I bought new in 1987 and I love the entire album!!! I don’t know what boob said that Stealin’ Horses didn’t have Top 40 potential, but he’s probably sweeping floors somewhere today. “Turnaround”, “Walk Away”, and “Tangled” could have been huge with just a little support from the record label!! I can’t imagine all the great music that i’ll never hear because some bonehead doesn’t know a good song when he hears it! Thank you, Kopana for the aural delights on this album… IT’S AWESOME!
Kopana
Thank YOU Larry for your kindness and support. In the end, boobs never win 😉 And stay tuned, you just never know what might happen. You can’t keep a good horse down.
Keith
It’s a real shame the poor quality of music on the radio these days as a misperception of the music talent in the world today. It seams that nothing stays in it’s own genre and talentless musicians are given their success by certain influential people through name recognition. I just happened to be in a store many years ago around 1991 when I heard Mesas and Mandolins playing as demo music in the stereo department. I ejected the CD to find out who it was. A person from the store (I took to be the one the CD belonged to) came over and gave me a dirty look as he put the CD back in…I think he thought I was “stealin” his horses. Anyway, I scoured the earth and bought my own copy and was not disappointed. It just goes to show, there’s a lot of great talent out there…just most of the time it is a fortuitous discovery. Still hoping you horse bandits would make a comeback!
Kopana
How kind of you, Keith. Don’t give up hope – we’re not dead yet 😉 Stay tuned