Robbie Horlick: Man of Many Faces, Two Bands and Tacos

Boy don’t you worry, you’ll find yourself
Follow your heart and nothing else
And you can do this, baby, if you try
All that I want for you, my son, is to be satisfied
—“Simple Man,” Lynyrd Skynyrd

ATLANTA— Inside his briefcase, Robbie Horlick stows little else save three forms of advertisement (business cards, flyers and lighters), three books (including John Fahey’s “Vampire Vultures”), Post-Its and his Chapstick. Though smaller than a Macbook, the briefcase contains everything that the 32-year-old attorney needs—no more, no less.

As he empties its contents onto a brick walkway, I realize that the same can be said of Faja Blues, the Cassavetes‘ upcoming sophomore effort. Horlick named Faja Blues after his favorite a la carte taco from La Parrilla—a no-nonsense combination of steak, lettuce and cheese. Mastered by Rodney Mills, who’s worked with 38 Special and the Doobie Brothers, the album is just as straightforward. Moreover, it shows how the singer-songwriter has become self-assured in his own simplicity.

Horlick first served as a public defender in Fulton County before he worked as an attorney for a small Marietta firm. Then in 2009, Horlick founded his own firm—because the longer he worked for someone else, the more he wanted to work for himself. “Every time I looked ahead in life, no matter what I saw myself doing, I saw myself doing it for myself,” he says.

Soon after that, Horlick and the rest of Cassavetes—Matt Cherry, Dan Nadolny and Sean Sawyer— began composing Faja Blues. The band experimented impulsively at first, as they did for their 2006 debut Funny Story. But a few months later, about halfway through the recording process at analog studio The Living Room, Cassavetes decided to clear its collective throat and stop meandering through darker, prog rock tendencies.

As a result, Faja Blues is brighter—and, like that briefcase, clutter-free. “The record is less filled, less solos, less mess,” Horlick says. “This is just our simpler, cleaner take on pop music.”

Horlick and contributing vocalist Leigh Anne Miller even discovered just how good two voices can sound by themselves—specifically, their own. The pair, along with Oryx & Crake‘s Matt Jarrard and Cousins’ Lee Goldenberg, have since formed Book Club, Horlick’s first acoustic effort since his high school band The Shipbuilders. “Folk has always been in the veins,” Horlick laughs.

In Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Simple Man,” a mother wishes for her son to “be something you love and understand.” Now, close to 40 years after Mills mastered that song, Horlick is doing just that. “Work takes priority, but music seeps in,” he says, adding, “I guess I blend them alright. With two bands and a job, I try my best.”

The Faja Blues release party at Drunken Unicorn is on Saturday, Sept. 25, 9 p.m. Ghost Party and The Bears of Blue River will also perform.

Photo Credit: Jason Travis