From the moment they first sang together, Alice Wallace and Caitlin Cannon knew they had something, they just didn’t know what to call it. The “lovely harmony,” extolled by The Boot after the release of their first single, “Lucky Break,” in April 2021, describes musical kismet that can’t be manufactured or even learned. As artists with vastly different styles and personalities, the pair recognized there was strength in the depth of their differences. A shared love for a heart-breaking hook and punchy turn of phrase led to an album’s worth of co-written songs that deftly straddle the line between class and crass. This demanded they finally put a name to that intangible something between them–they call that thing SIDE PONY.
Wallace’s voice rings with echoes ofthe 70s country and rock of her California roots, with influence from artists like Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, and Joni Mitchell. Cannon, on the other hand, spent the entirety of her twenties in New York City and developed a grungier song-writing style that brings to mind Nanci Griffith or Kelly Willis and derives influence from the likes of Shovels and Rope and Elizabeth Cook. On stage as Side Pony, Wallace’s mesmerizing, powerhouse performance skills are expanded by Cannon’s evocative and resonant harmonies, and their combined affinity for sucker-punch lyrics and truth-telling leaves no empty spaces.