When you put on Joe Harvey-Whyte and Bobby Lee’s Last Ride, you instantly feel like hitching up the horses, widening your third eye and letting yourself drift out onto the celestial plains.

After hearing the sonic alchemy that these two can conjure up while combining forces on last year’s excellent Cosmic Country Revue – Live at PDV 03/31/23 tape and Lee’s Endless Skyways, the expectations for this collab record were quite high. Sure enough, these two rose to the occasion and raised the bar even higher.

From the hazy cowpoke strut of the opening cut, “Flatbed Alfalfa Run To Pueblo, Colorado, Fall 1972,” to the moody barren soundscapes of “Plainsong” and “Deep Time,” to the sneaky drum machine-centered Chet Atkins hallucination that is “The Babalon Working,” the pair explores just how varied the “ambient country/cosmic Americana” spectrum could really get. No matter if they lean more into earthen acoustic sounds or countrified Ash Ra Tempel-like soundbaths, they always perfect every variation of this loose micro-genre.

If these tracks sound perhaps too spaced-out and ambient-leaning for your particular taste, then you’ll at least be able to enjoy the catchy psych choogle of “Smoke Signals,” and its even poppier soul remix by BJ Smith, which concludes the digital album. There’s a little bit for just about everyone here.

Lovers of The Assassination of Jesse James…soundtrack, Harmonia and bands like Seawind of Battery will all find common ground here. Get your copy on vinyl, CD or digital from Curation Records today.

-KH