As one might expect, 2018's
Dean Wareham vs. Cheval Sombre finds the
Luna frontman teaming up with fellow New York psych-folkie
Cheval Sombre (aka
Christopher Porpora) on set of thoughtfully curated covers. Less expected is the album's loose cowboy theme. As evoked by the title, this collection of songs by country luminaries like
Townes Van Zandt,
Blaze Foley, and
Marty Robbins (as well some traditionals, standards, and lesser-known covers), brings to mind a late-'60s spaghetti Western buddy movie with
Wareham playing the wandering troubadour and
Sombre the cool-eyed poet/gunslinger. However, rather than a dramatic shootout, this showdown plays more like a low-key acid Western, as our dreamy space cowboys seemingly trade songs over a warm campfire under a lysergic desert twilight. Joining them on their relaxed cattle run is producer
Jason Quever, who previously helmed
Wareham's 2013
Emancipated Hearts EP and
Luna's own reunion covers album, 2017's
A Sentimental Education. Also on board is
Luna bassist
Britta Phillips, some members of
Papercuts and
the War on Drugs, and others. Together, they craft a lush, cavernous sound, draping
Wareham and
Sombre in ripples of twangy guitar, woody percussion, piano, and, as on
Wareham's poignant rendition of the cowboy anthem "My Rifle, My Pony and Me," a woebegone bowed saw.
Wareham and
Sombre initially met via their mutual association with
Spacemen 3's
Peter Kember (aka
Sonic Boom), who helped produce
Sombre's 2009 debut, on which
Wareham played guitar. In many ways, they are a well-matched pair -- laconic cowpokes with distant eyes and voices that often tremble like desert brush in the breeze. Vocally,
Wareham is the brighter singer, his easy tenor bringing to mind a hippie version of
Gene Autry. Conversely,
Sombre has a breathy, dark baritone that's a good match for tracks like
Townes Van Zandt's "Greensboro Woman," which he performs here with a narcotic intensity. Particularly compelling is the duo's reworking of
Blaze Foley's deeply melancholy ballad "If I Could Only Fly," in which
Sombre sings against a slowly rising backdrop of bass and synth that's equal parts
Velvet Underground and
Joy Division. This is a Western album where ghost towns stand silent and the stars shine bright at night, but the heroes don't so much ride off into the sunset as sink into a shimmering haze of a late-afternoon mirage.