Cowboy Worship

Issued eight months after the full-length *Love*, *Cowboy Worship* features four of its songs in alternate versions that expand the range of Damon McMahon’s initial project. Though a quick follow-up compared to *Love*’s elongated process, this EP isn\'t a toss-off. Harvey Milk’s Stephen Tanner joins forces to recast “Green Eyes (Music Blues).” But it’s performances of “Song to the Siren” (the Tim Buckley song that many heard for the first time by This Mortal Coil) and *Through Donkey Jaw*’s “Lezzy Head (Burial),” with assistance from Jordi Wheeler and Parker Kindred, that linger as mesmerizing highlights.

Amen Dunes’ Love took close to a year and a half, 16 musicians, and five different studios to complete. It was a song cycle that required broad experimentation before it was clear what was essential underneath the surface. In that process, much of the sound that might have made it onto the album was lost. There was just too much to say for one record. One description that seemed to work for Love was that it was an album of devotional music, and even more specifically, a type of devotional music McMahon called cowboy worship. Cowboy worship as a concept certainly did not begin with Love, but instead Love began with cowboy worship, was born from it, and in turn added a new link to the chain.

This new EP sheds light on Damon McMahon’s meticulous methodology: Four of its six tracks are reprises of songs from Amen Dunes' 2014 triumph Love, and they serve as testaments to his determination to get the vibe just right.

Conceived as a companion piece to Amen Dunes' gently transcendent Love, Cowboy Worship shines the spotlight on different versions of a few of the album's songs.