“True Green, the musical project of Dan Hornsby, feels like a nice walk in the Minnesota sunshine.” –The Current
“…a new niche in the Minnesota sound.” –MSP Magazine
“Consider The Priesthood” is a sprawling, Alex G-like gem while “Falconry” is a quick, moving ballad. –Stereogum
(named second best local album of 2024)“Novelist Dan Hornsby makes terrific lyric-drunk indie rock, lo-fi and unrushed, with shaky guitars supporting sturdy melodies.” –Racket
True Green’s name comes from medieval nun Hildegard of Bingen’s idea of viriditas, and also a lawn care company. Their debut, My Lost Decade, came out on Spacecase Records in 2024. Minneapolis-based songwriter Dan Hornsby is also a novelist (his book Via Negativa is being adapted into a film starring Young Mazino) and these nine songs put his storytelling skills on full display. The title track’s narrator accounts for his ten-year debauched fugue. “Midtown Matt” follows barflies who always threaten to leave town but never quite get their shit together. “Comeback Special” is about a waiter who thinks he’s the reincarnation of Elvis. Tailer Ransom (of Owl’s Head Mountain) offers beautifully textured synths, mean guitar fills, piano, and banjo throughout the record, and Texas songwriter Megan Storie, Big Clown’s Zach Mitchell, and Midlake’s Jesse Chandler make striking cameos. Mixed and mastered by Matt Qualls at Easley McCain Recording, the warm, wobbly songs evoke some of the venerable bands who recorded there, especially Silver Jews and Guided By Voices.
Hail Disaster, the second album from Minneapolis-based band True Green, is a darker, warmer follow up to their 2024 lofi debut My Lost Decade, exploring tragedies real and imagined, ranging from family cruelty (“Italian Lightning”), to the dark side of fandom (“Beatlemania”), doomed love (“Hamlet + Juliet”), and the death of Hornsby’s uncle from AIDS (“Terry’s Parrot”). “The first half of your life is Tetris, the second half is Jenga,” Hornsby sings, summing up the record’s themes on “Bodysurfing.” Multi-instrumental ringer Tailer Ransom plays organ, banjo, synthesizers, concertina, and the occasional guitar, lending a poignant, bittersweet frame to Hornsby’s lyrics. In the liner notes, novelist and critic Justin Taylor says: “Dan’s vocals are mellow as ever, but the wisdom he’s sharing (also the jokes, stories, visions, and love) feels hard-won, wrested from the quenchless jaws of the disaster that his title hails.” Hail Disaster was mixed and mastered by Matt Castore (Condominium, Scrunchies) at Soft Cult Studio, with additional tape mastering by Matt Qualls at Easley McCain Recording. Out on Spacecase Records 3/24/2026.
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