Prog band haunted by Kerouac

Genesis star joins novella project

NEW HAMPSHIRE band Rocking Horse Music Club have just released a new album which pays tribute to The Haunted Life, an unfinished novella by Jack Kerouac. And the recording, unveiled last month, includes a contribution from one of the giants of the progressive rock world.

The group, comprised of a collective of prog musicians who also serve as session professionals at Rocking Horse Studio in the town of Pittsfield, are joined on their latest recording The Last Pink Glow by keyboardist Tony Banks, founding member of the legendary British act Genesis.

The project has both strong Beat roots – it has been put together with the endorsement of Jim Sampas, the Literary Executor of the Jack Kerouac Estate – and ambitious musical intentions, embracing multiple styles in a sweeping eleven-track set.

Band member Brian Coombes, pianist, vocalist and co-composer with Justin Cohn, points out that this is not the first time Rocking Horse Music Club have adopted a literary theme. The group’s previous album Circus of Wire Dolls took its inspiration from another major American novelist Thomas Wolfe, with material from the writer’s classic text You Can’t Go Home Again a central source on the record.

Now the band turn to Kerouac as a creative catalyst, an almost logical step perhaps as the great Beat innovator was significantly shaped, in his early fiction certainly, by Wolfe himself. In fact, Kerouac’s debut 1950 novel The Town and the City is often regarded as a clear homage to that earlier writer.

Coombes, a University of Lowell graduate who took a BA in English with a focus on twentieth-century American literature and already a Thomas Wolfe fan, now saw a fascinating opportunity for his band to take on a little-known Kerouac work but one with high artistic potential.

‘As someone who grew up on the banks of the Merrimack River, I connect with the story of the boy’s coming of age in The Haunted Life. combining my passions for literature and music in the most delightful way. And, to be able to write a song with my musical hero Tony Banks, featuring the words of Jack Kerouac, makes the project even more special for me.’

Pictured above: Brian Coombes, member of Rocking Horse Music Club

So, what is The Haunted Life and how does it connect with The Town and City? Coombes tells Rock and the Beat Generation that the relationship between the two stories is evident but ‘sometimes confusing’.

He reveals that Peter Martin, a loosely-veiled stand in for Kerouac himself, is ‘the same character in both but all the characters around him have changed.’ The account, he tells us, ‘focuses only on his time in Galloway, with Peter dreaming of escaping the town and finding new adventures elsewhere.’

For fans of Kerouac and the Duluoz Legend, this so-far unseen chapter from the writer’s significant archive will provide further angles on the youthful progress of a Lowell-born legend and his hopes of becoming established in the wider literary world. For music followers, particularly those with a taste for the progressive, this album presents an eclectic take on the early days of a great writer-to-be.

The Last Pink Glow, subtitled An Interpretation of Jack Kerouac’s The Haunted Life, has been described as ‘genre-defying’ as it weaves multiple threads into its sound canvas, blending prog with elements of Americana, blues, electronic and orchestral music.

Jim Sampas of the Kerouac Estate comments of the new record: ‘What an extraordinary job they’ve done, it’s just a truly remarkable work. In fact, I think it’s going to end up being one of the best albums of the year and will probably win some awards.’

Pictured above: Jim Sampas, Literary Executor of the Jack Kerouac Estate

Interviewed recently, Sampas also speaks very positively of Coombes himself. ‘We got to know each other and have incredible admiration for the band’s work. After listening to the previous record I was just blown away.’

He adds: ‘We are very particular at the Estate who we bring in when it comes to a documentary, a film or an album. The folk we have worked with, Michael Stipe, Eddie Vedder, Patti Smith…I wanted to be at sure we had the right group and I was just totally convinced they could do something special working with this story.’

Says Coombes: ‘Unlike our previous two releases, which featured numerous special guests, The Last Pink Glow features only one very special guest: Tony Banks.’ He tells us that the album was ‘recorded and mixed here at Rocking Horse Studio with additional recording at Abbey Road Studios and Angel in London.’

Pictured above: Genesis legend Tony Banks

The new album will be available worldwide on all streaming services. The CD edition can be obtained through Burning Shed (UK) and at the band’s website. A video shot in Lowell to accompany the track ‘The Haunted Life’ has also been created.

Future live performances are planned in New England and in the UK. The group will play the Lowell Celebrates Kerouac Festival on October 12th, 2025, and Trading Boundaries in Sussex, England, on November 13th, 2025.

Editor’s note: Brian Coombes and Jim Sampas appeared on A Novel Idea: Meet the Author, presented by Noelle Boc, on Danvers Community Access Television, June 3rd, 2025. Sampas’ quotes in this article were adapted from that YouTube webcast.