Episode 18-39: Dead Horses

About This Episode

At fifteen, Dead Horses frontwoman Sarah Vos’ world turned upside
down. Raised in a strict, fundamentalist home, Vos lost
everything when she and her family were expelled from the rural
Wisconsin church where her father had long served as pastor. “My
older brother was diagnosed with schizophrenia and my twin had
mental illnesses and cognitive disabilities,” explains Vos. “When
the church kicked us out, they basically told my dad, ‘If you
can’t lead your family, how can you lead your church?’”


“At the time we were expelled, we lived in the church’s parish
house,” explains Vos. “Suddenly, my father was unemployed and my
family was homeless. My parents couldn’t afford insurance for the
medical care my siblings needed. We were kicked out and
completely abandoned.”


However, Vos’ love of music carried on after she left the church.


“Almost half of those services [were] just singing hymns,” she
reflected in a recent interview. “I also went to a parochial
school, so I had to memorize hymns and Bible verses all day, too.
When I really look back, before I had the chance to explore music
on my own, that was really central. Even the way I write songs
[today] is reminiscent of hymns. That’s maybe why I was so drawn
to folk music to begin with: it’s geared towards communities
singing it together.”


By the time Vos turned 18, her family had begun to get back on
their feet. She headed to Milwaukee for college, and there, came
to terms with revelations about her sexuality that her religious
upbringing had forced her to repress. The mix of freedom and
relief and shame and guilt was overwhelming, and a depressive
breakdown ensued.


“I couldn’t take care of myself,” she remembers. “I couldn’t
sleep, I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t do anything. I stopped going to
classes, and then I dropped out altogether and moved back home to
Oshkosh. That’s where I met Dan.”


When bassist Daniel Wolff and Vos first started playing music
together, it felt as if the clouds had finally parted. Vos
introduced songs she’d been writing since high school open mics,
Wolff learned a new instrument for the band (the double bass),
and within months, they had earned a devoted local following.
Regular gigs led to steady residencies led to regional touring
and their first recordings. Two of the band’s original members
ultimately left the group due to opioid addictions (“I still see
the pawn shop sticker every time I look at my guitar tuner,”
remembers Vos), but the Dead Horses moniker the pair created as a
tribute to a friend who’d over-dosed from heroin stuck even after
their departure.


American Songwriter called Vos “a compelling vocalist…who carries
every tune with her husky, deeply emotional tone that feels lived
in and real,” while No Depression hailed her songwriting as
“beautiful and fresh.” With a fleshed out touring lineup, the
group logged countless miles, sharing bills along the way with
Trampled by Turtles, Mandolin Orange, Rhiannon Giddens and
Elephant Revival in addition to making festival appearances from
Bristol Rhythm and Roots to WinterWonderGrass.


We were lucky enough to welcome them live on stage at Big Top
Chautauqua. In this episode of Tent Show Radio you'll hear the
show given by Dead Horses when they came to the Big Blue Tent in
2017.
About Michael Perry

Michael Perry is a New York Times bestselling author, humorist
and radio show host from New Auburn, Wisconsin.


Perry’s bestselling memoirs include Population 485, Truck: A Love
Story, Coop, and Visiting Tom, and his latest, Montaigne in Barn
Boots: An Amateur Ambles Through Philosophy. His first book for
young readers, The Scavengers, was published in 2014 and first
novel for adult readers, The Jesus Cow, was published in May of
2015.


Raised on a small Midwestern dairy farm, Perry put himself
through nursing school while working on a ranch in Wyoming, then
wandered into writing. He lives with his wife and two daughters
in rural Wisconsin, where he serves on the local volunteer fire
and rescue service and is an intermittent pig farmer. He hosts
the nationally-syndicated “Tent Show Radio,” performs widely as a
humorist, and tours with his band the Long Beds (currently
recording their third album for Amble Down Records). He has
recorded three live humor albums including Never Stand Behind A
Sneezing Cow and The Clodhopper Monologues.


Learn more about Michael and where to get his publications at
www.sneezingcow.com.


Follow Michael Perry


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