Horse Feathers

Ringle had played and performed as lead singer for a number of bands in his native Idaho, U.S. before making the move to Portland, Oregon, U.S. in 2004. Along with the geographical move Ringle made a move towards a more acoustic-tinged sound and would regularly play open-mic nights in the area using the moniker Horse Feathers.

After hearing a number of Ringle’s demos multi-instrumentalist and Portland icon Peter Broderick offered to help thicken out some of the songs and the two played shows across the area. Horse Feathers essentially became a duo and the two entered Skyler Norwood’s Miracle Lake studios and recorded their debut album “Words Are Dead”. The 2006 album released by Lucky Madison had a chamber-folk sound to it and was strongly influenced by the pair’s shared appreciation for Bruce Springsteen’s “Nebraska” and the discography of composer Max Richter.

The band was joined by Broderick’s sister Heather Broderick on cello in 2007 and initiated the rotating cast of multi-instrumentalists that would record and perform live with Horse Feathers. The band’s sophomore album “House With No Home” was released on Kill Rock Stars in early 2008, and became one of the labels highest yielding albums.

Shortly after the Broderick siblings lefts to pursue their own musical and creative endeavours with Nathan Crockett covering violin duties and Catherine Odell taking the cellist reigns. The band toured extensively in anticipation and support of their third studio album entitled “Thistled Spring”. The album was released in 2010 on Kill Rock Stars, followed up by 2012’s “Cynic’s New Year” and 2014’s “So It Is With Us”.