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 The extent of Ben Shneider’s mythopoeia is reminiscent of J.R.R. Tolkien, who is rightly hailed as one of the most thorough world-makers of the fantasy genre. Middle Earth is no thoughtless backdrop. There is not a shred of arbitrary scenery or dialogue, nothing coincidental about the landscape of Tolkien’s fantasy. This is artful calculation of epic proportion, myth within myth. Layers upon layers of Lord. From the legends of Tom Bombadil to the detailed account prehistoric period spanning the decades before the Lord of the Rings Trilogy takes place, found in Simarillion.

Who is Ben Shneider? His name remains shrouded in some degree of anonymity, as he creates under the stage name “Lord Huron.” The Michigan native founded the solo project, and eventually added other musicians to play on tour. He was trained as a painter. His artistic skills are displayed in the drawings featured on album art covers and released on social media under the group’s page. This reminds me of how Tolkien would create the maps detailing the landscape of Middle Earth and how his sketches often littered the margins of his manuscripts. For who better to envision their writings come to life, than the authors themselves? Ben Schneider’s first album as Lord Huron entitled “Lonesome Dreams” is a concept album weaving the tale of a cowboy’s adventures in the Wild West, though styled in the Indie Folk genre. The depth of Lord Huron’s mythos is evidenced by the fact that Ben created the album from the perspective of the fictional author of his own origination, a man name George Ranger Johnson. The man has a real website and everything.( http://www.georgerangerjohnson.com/ Each of the song tracks from the album is pictured there, as a full novel, with an author biography and all. The power of the mythos is reinforced by these measures because the details create a complete canon, an alternate world no less real than ours where the events in Lord huron’s folk song tales actually occurred, and an old goat named George Ranger Johnson wrote books about them. It’s as if, when you listen to the music, you are entering this parallel world and you’re knee deep it its compelling canon. It is fantastical and believable at the same time, because the effort that when into creating every facet of the landscape is done so artfully. The focus is also shifted away from the artist, further explaining why the front man of such a popular band has almost no name recognition. When you hear the tales of the protagonist of his novels, you don’t think of Shneider, or Lord Huron as the artist, you think of George Ranger Johnson. The mythos is further envisioned in colorful and story-like portrayals of the songs in the group’s music videos. The follow-up album Strange Trails, happens in the same fictional universe and continues the journey of the characters in a different setting. Schneider himself said that the music is created around this idea of Lord Huron existing in its own right, as a sort of pulp fiction. The songs are designed as a collection consistent with the idea that they are novels of the fictional author, and as such are intended to be listened to in the order of the tracklist. Consider the tracklist as the table of contents in the mythically rich musical landscape known as Lord Huron.