Horses and Hills, Allen Dobb's debut solo CD, takes us into a rich musical heartland, spanning folk, country/rock and soul. From the first raw, swollen bars of "Mirage", to the liberating pop refrain of "Magnolia", Dobb’s textured and expressive voice carries the listener over an earthy, but varied musical terrain. The acoustic guitar based arrangements are salted with mandolin, banjo, electric slide guitar, piano and haunting percussion.
These songs reveal Dobb’s highly detailed and often poetic sensibility: "Horses are standing all bunched in the corner/Steam riding their backs like ghosts in the morning," he sings in the moving "Forty-Five Years". Horses and Hills is a landscape of broken farms, wild west shows, travelling salesmen and backwater spirits. These are honest songs about living, loving and leaving.