From Vincent Marone:

White Horse began as an act meant to start the musical journey of Claire Peggs (Claire Krusen at the time of recording).

I had left First Step to Failure a couple of years prior and started a band with my cousins called The Long Year in late 2007, early 2008. Sadly, The Long Year dissolved before it had started due to my divorce that happened midway through recording our debut album.

Summer into Fall of '08 was one of the darkest periods of my entire life. The void left when my children's mother left the three of us was vacuous and bleak. I made many missteps during this time, especially when it came to trying to fill that void.

One of the bright spots, though, was meeting Claire. She was a friend of a young woman I'd been dating at the time. After getting to know one another, we realized our mutual and deep passion for music.

I'd set up shop in my kitchen to record some demos of original songs and a batch of Christmas tunes to give as gifts for the holiday while my kids toddled in the background. Claire's first time in front of the microphone was helping to sing Christmas tunes like "Jingle Bells".

Not long after, we decided to should start an official band. I asked Claire for some cover song ideas to get her comfortable with the recording and rehearsal process. The intent was to start with these selections, then write original music to perform later.

While we didn't quite make it that far, the cover songs we began to record were far-enough-along into production to yield some satisfying finished pieces.

"White Horse", "Walk Away", and "The Rose" were the only three songs that made it in-tact on a stored hard drive throughout the years. Because of this, I am able to extract the original files, remix, and add flourishes to these songs. It truly breathes a whole new life into them and I am so proud of the results!

"Fligthless Bird (Hopeless Dream)", "I Still Miss Someone", and "Should Have Said No" all exist the way they did back in 2008. I truly wish I had the stem files from at least one of these tunes, but such is life. At least I was able to recover the master files to some extent.

The list of artists we covered in White Horse ranged from Ben Harper to Taylor Swift to Johnny Cash. It was a treat to be able to pick apart pieces by all of these artists, to see how they ticked, and to add our own unique flavors to the songs.

Especially for me, covering artists like Bette Midler and Taylor Swift are not everyday occurrences. It's nice to know renditions I helped to create exist for everyone to listen to.