Album Review – Colby Acuff’s “Handmade Horsepower”

Outlaw Country (#580) and Country Protest Songs (#579) on the Country DDS.


Well buckle up and hold on tight ladies and gentlemen, because Coby Acuff isn’t here to deliver a soft and inoffensive version of agreeable Americana on this one. The increasingly iconoclastic and mercurial country artist enacted a series of deep character studies for his last record called Enjoy The Ride in an interesting approach to album making. On this one, he tears the shirt off, raises his dukes, and comes out swinging.

Coby Acuff goes full-blown Outlaw on Handmade Horsepower, laying grooves down, giving into two-tone beats, featuring a little phaser on the guitar every now and then, and getting outright mouthy about the ills of the music industry with a devil-may-care attitude about who might catch wind of it, or any collateral damage it might cause to his career.

Handmade Horsepower is the kind of album that you wish folks like Sturgill Simpson or Tyler Childers would make. Sure, some of the writing and song themes are a bit cliché. But in some respects, that’s the entire point: to put out a modern version of a classic Outlaw country album that embraces country’s evergreen themes, stories, and gripes, just with a new, unique perspective on them.

Not every song on this album is a country protest song. But the best and the most fun ones on the album are. And if nothing else, this album is a hell of a lot of fun.

“Should’ve started a podcast or an Only Fans, these songs can’t pay for a tank of gas. Shaking my ass online is my last chance,” Colby sings about the economic realities of the music industry on the song “Matter of Time.” Then on the track “Play For Keeps” Colby caws, “Sell your soul, and before you know, we’ll have your name up in lights. Sing more songs about cowboys, and less about them white pines.” The last line makes reference to the title of his 2023 album where perhaps the viral heat behind Coby Acuff that helped launch his career started to fade.

But those songs just feel like the preamble to “Lipstick On A Pig,” which is a knock down, drag out, full-throated rebuke of the music industry and it’s worst aspects, from fixed awards to hyper crazes, uncaring of who or what might get caught in the crossfire of Colby’s curses. Again, “Lipstick On A Pig” kind of gives into to every country protest song cliché. But it’s also one hell of a good time, and hard to not pump your fist with.

Handmade Horsepower is not a commentary on the music industry from stem to stern. It just sets the table. “Dead Me Tell No Tales” is more of a bandit song, finding the Willie-style of Outlaw music as opposed to the Waylon one. “Long Hauling Blues” is just a good ol’ country trucker song. “Let You Go” is a story of heartbreak. “White Flag” has some protest attitude to it, but speaks to so much more in life.

Taken as a whole though, Handmade Horsepower is about taking control of one’s career and destiny. Coby Acuff started in the music business with the super viral moment behind his song “If I Were The Devil” back in 2021. This led to signing to a major label, and though it seems like he never really had to relinquish 100% of creative control, he certainly had people in his ear telling him what to do when all Acuff wanted was to leverage his early success into a career where sincerity and sustainability were paramount, not the next popular moment.

Now completely unsigned, Acuff is saying what he wants to say, and doing what he wants to do. There is a level of “What’s next?” or maybe even boredom to the approach of Colby’s last two albums. Acuff doesn’t come across like the troubled soul songwriter waking up in a pool of his own filth and exorcising his demons through beatnik poetry. But he also seems to be incredibly smart, principled, and driven to do music his own way, and inspire others to do the same, despite the temptations laid out by the industry, or the envy that social media can sow.

Be yourself. Be your own boss. Hold your ground. Fight for who you are and what you believe in, even if that means settling for less, because at least you’re pleasing yourself and sleeping easy at the end of the day. That is the message of Handmade Horsepower.

8.2/10

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