Song Premiere: Handsome Family, “Tiny Tina”

Photo by Brandon Soder
Photo by Brandon Soder

There’s no greater muse than a tiny horse – except, perhaps, missing the opportunity to see one. Case in point: the Handsome Family’s new song, “Tiny Tina,” which tells the tragic story of tiny-horse-meeting gone awry. The tune is from their forthcoming album Unseen, which is out September 16.

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“Every year at the state fair I went determined to see Tiny Tina, the world’s smallest horse,” the band says. “Every year I came home without doing it. One year she just wasn’t there. Why didn’t I go see her when I had the chance? Maybe I was afraid of disappointment? Maybe I was afraid of not being disappointed? I did see a hypnotist at the state fair one year who was so terrifying that I felt like I was having a psychotic break. The devil himself may have been at the fair that year. Carnivals are always that way— teetering between joy and insanity. Is this why so many people are afraid of clowns? We hope you hear all these things in this song: joy, fear, heartbreak, awe— all the things the sight of a really tiny horse ought to make you feel.”

Listen to “Tiny Tina” below.

Bill Kirchen & Austin de Lone: Transatlanticana