A playful and unabashedly old-school offering, ‘Horseback’ arrived as the fifth single from Cody Johnson's eagerly anticipated new album, Banks Of The Trinity. The uptempo earworm finds the man affectionately known as CoJo leaning into his Texas Western dancehall roots, as he regales listeners with the light-hearted revenge story of a ranch-hand whose ex-wife attempts to keep his horse from him.

The mood is light and jovial throughout the narrative of ‘Horseback’, and the backing reflects this perfectly. Johnson's commanding vocals are given an extra jolt of energy and levity by the steel-soaked, upbeat and wonderfully twangy instrumental. The lively spirit captures the jaunty, tongue-in-cheek ambience of the tale.

Over the course of the opening verses, Johnson tells listeners about a ranch-hand who had just split up from his “gold-digger” wife. There's a clever piece of wordplay snuck in here, as Johnson quips that “her pocks and her pastuers are greener” since the divorce, implying that the ranch-hand lost out big-time (“Now he's a double-wide on the county line / Sipping on a six pack of Lonestar Light / She did 'em dirty, took him to the cleaners / Now her pockets and her pastures are greener”).

But despite seemingly getting fleeced, our ranch-hand makes it clear during the hook that there's just one thing that's really upset him about this whole debacle. He doesn't care about the relationship anymore, nor money. He just wants his horse back. It's a witty play on the classic phrase ‘horseback’, referring to the horse's spine, as well as potentially denoting an ‘estimation’ for an amount of money. Given the theme of the song, the latter could be another hidden meaning.

He emphasises that his wife never even liked the horse, rather, she is just keeping it to spite him (“Now he's a buckskin, fifteen hands / Five-time team rope champion / She never liked him, she don't need him / Hell, she don't even know how to feed him”).

Then, our ranch-hand devises a plot to sneak back his beloved horse under night-fall - a scheme that ultimately proves successful, as he's finally reunited with his old buddy (“So last night, around midnight / He took his lucky fence pliers and a mag light / He cut the fence out, he snuck on in / One whistle in the wind, and that buckskin”).

“He's a ranch hand in a pinch, man
Hotter than the red on a cattle brand
'Cause she's a gold digger with a quick trigger
A cast iron, skillet swingin', lid-flipper
-
Now he's a double-wide on the county line
Sipping on a six pack of Lonestar Light
She did 'em dirty, took him to the cleaners
Now her pockets and her pastures are greener
And he says
-
I don't miss her or her sister
I don't need that old drop top Cadillac
She can keep that diamond, I ain't lyin'
I just want my horse back
-
Now he's a buckskin, fifteen hands
Five-time team rope champion
She never liked him, she don't need him
Hell, she don't even know how to feed him
-
She ain't a cowgirl, she can't stand Merle
Hell, she ain't ever two stepped or snapped pearls
So, after about a month of Jim Beam'ing
That ol' cowboy got to schemin', sayin'
-
I don't miss her or her sister
I don't need that old drop top Cadillac
Well, she can keep that diamond, I ain't lyin'
I just want my horse back
-
So last night, around midnight
He took his lucky fence pliers and a mag light
He cut the fence out, he snuck on in
One whistle in the wind, and that buckskin
-
He came running, running right up
He had the saddle all ready, so he saddled up
Rode off like a bat out of hell and
You could hear that cowboy yelling
Singin'
-
I don't miss her or her sister
I don't need that old drop top Cadillac
Well, she can keep that diamond, I ain't lying
I just want my
Yeah, I just want my
Damn, girl, I just want my horse back”

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Cody Johnson

Artist