PRESS PRAISE FOR CLEO REED
“Beautiful, unique, and incredibly touching” - BANDCAMP
“Expansive and experiential soundscapes… Reed melds mediums of sound design and narrative-driven, self-directed performances” - NPR
“Emotional and kaleidoscopic, with a regenerative hymn” - OKAYPLAYER
Today, New York-based multi-disciplinary artist Cleo Reed shares a new single, “Always The Horse, Never The Jockey”. On the new track, Reed embraces Black Southern folk styling and presents the symbol of the mule, with a delicate acoustic guitar creating space for Reed’s powerful lyrical offering, “I woke up in spite of fear / I didn’t ask to be here.” Reflecting on the single, Reed says, "It is a harrowing realization to notice and understand that the systems seen in the United States are intentionally designed to fail us. Each day, I’ve seen who chooses to ride right past the dysfunction in search of industry. I can’t help but admit that I feel more in relation to the horse itself than the jockey.” Listen to “Always The Horse, Never The Jockey” HERE.
“Always The Horse, Never The Jockey” follows Reed’s first single of 2024, “Women At War”—a protest song for a generation as the US faces the harshest restrictions on women's bodies in decades. Watch a stirring live folk performance of “Women At War” HERE. Cleo Reed’s new singles powerfully lay the foundation for the sonic landscape and intention of their next chapter, culminating in a new album coming this summer.
Raised in Uptown NYC and DC, Reed’s history with music starts with classical training in percussion at Harlem School of the Arts, to playing guitar and songwriting in the influential New York punk band Pretty Sick, to studying sound engineering and sound design at Berklee College of Music. Since releasing their debut album Root Cause in 2023—including a limited physical release with Vinyl Me, Please and praised by NPR, Pitchfork, Bandcamp, Okayplayer, and more—Reed has emerged as a bold, irrefutable talent, forging forward while staying firmly rooted in their ancestral and cultural lineage.
In recent years, Reed has collaborated with Jon Batiste, developing software instruments for “American Symphony” at Carnegie Hall, an award-winning performance that earned the GRAMMY for Best Music Film at the 2025 ceremony. Reed’s performance practice has taken the form of the “Black American Circus,” an ode to Black queer artists of the late 19th and early 20th century, premiering at AFROPUNK Festival in 2023, and performed at Banlieues Bleues in Paris and the Brooklyn Museum. In addition to their musical practice, Reed has received the prestigious 2024 Map Fund, awarded to performing artists who offer extraordinary ideas while participating in their communities’ vitality.
As the 2025 Session Resident at Brooklyn’s prestigious Recess Art, Reed developed CUNTRY: Always the Horse, Never The Jockey, a set of musical works, sculptures, and performances presented with Assembly fellows, working to protest against the demand of labor and productivity in the US. Last week as an Abrons Arts Center AIRspace resident, Reed performed at OPEN STUDIOS, a work in process presentation of experimental theatrical works rooted in their participatory art practice. Today’s new single “Always The Horse, Never The Jockey” cements Cleo Reed as a young, visionary artist with a singular voice, and an unwavering commitment to honoring those that came before while subverting the status quo. | 
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