Mutual Benefit - 'The Cowboy's Prayer' EP released 25 August

Jordan Lee has spent the last few years bouncing around the indie underground. From Ohio, to Texas, to Boston, and Brooklyn, running the wonderful Kassette Klub label, touring with his friend’s bands, and leading an amorphous project called Mutual Benefit, a one-man-band or a sprawling collective, depending on where he is and who is around that day.

Having released his debut album 'Love's Crushing Diamond' via Bandcamp last year, a self-release on cassette that, on the strength of a Bandcamp posting, had blogs blowing up with praise for the record. It became clear that Love’s Crushing Diamond needed a wider release. Other Music Recording Co. was thrilled to step in, not a moment too soon as the album became the first-ever Bandcamp release to be named Pitchfork’s Best New Music, while still almost totally unavailable to a wider audience. Since its release proper in January, Mutual Benefit has been touring the world none stop.

That brings us to The Cowboy's Prayer, the EP that marginally preceded Love's Crushing Diamond. Unreleased outside of digital only via-Bandcamp and now released for the first time in Europe, as well as the first time on vinyl and CD.

The Cowboy's Prayer was based loosely on a road trip Jordan Lee took with a friend to Ohio through upstate New York that happened to correspond with the aftermath of Hurricane Irene. They ended up getting stuck in a small town for a couple days, the roads blocked with debris, and all around them were families grappling with the loss of all their worldly possessions. They had to fight with FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) to get a hotel room because FEMA had rented them all out for displaced people. “One of the few things open in the whole town that first day was a generator-powered Waffle House.” says Jordan. “I had a bit of a hard time processing all the surreal imagery and upon returning to Boston was weirdly struck by a sappy Roy Roger's clip where he recites "The Cowboy's Prayer". I adapted it to be somewhat of a personal mantra and it really informed the making of this record along with finally working up the courage to live nomadically for a while.”

Make me a partner with the wind

Let me see things as they stand

Guide me on the trail ahead

That stretches towards the great divide

The Cowboy’s Prayer was the real introduction of the lush orchestral folk sound that many first heard on Mutual Benefit’s breakthrough Love’s Crushing Diamond LP. Listening to it, it's hard not to adopt Jordan's mantra and get swept away by the beauty.

Watch mutual benefit’s “’let’s play’ / statue of a man” video !!

Jordan Lee’s Mutual Benefit debuted a new video for “’Let’s Play’ / Statue of a Man” via The Wall Street Journal’s Speakeasy blog. Directed by Stefan Grabrowski, the video was shot over the span of 6 months in and around Boston using mostly analog equipment and some experimental developing techniques. The resulting images have a frenetic, but also organic quality to them evoking the very personal and soul-searching nature of the song. As described by Jordan, “ I think Stefan really captured the spirit of the song by finding the beauty of rusted train tracks and flooded ponds and mashing it all together into a colorful mess.” Watch the video below and catch Mutual Benefit throughout the UK and North America this summer. They’ll be touring the Northeast with Wild Beasts and playing a bunch of festivals, including the Pitchfork Music Festival, NXNE, Hopscotch, Pygmalion, Way Out West, Green Man, amongst others.

LIVE

• 7th August - Cafe Mono @ Oya Festival, Oslo, Norway
• 8th August - Way Out West, Gothenburg, Sweden
• 10 August – Wilderness Festival, Charlbury
• 13 August – Hare and Hounds, Birmingham
• 15 August – Jabberwocky, London
• 16 August – Greenman Festival, Brecon Beacons
• 17 August – Proud Cabaret, Brighton