From the gently rolling plains of the American Midwest to the windswept, hilly coastlines of Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Aotearoa, Sig Wilder has spent a lifetime chasing something just beyond his reach— but not beyond his sight. Now, with his band Sig Wilder & Friends, he captures the process of finding your place in the world on Cowboy Practice, their moody debut album.
Rooted in the traditions of folk, alt-country and ambient Americana, Cowboy Practice is a hard-won series of reflections on homesickness, resilience, and becoming. Born in a small town outside St. Louis, Missouri, and shaped by years spent in Austin, Melbourne and his new home, Sig’s songwriting carries the weathered grace of a handwritten journal—full of cracked memories, quiet revelations, and dust-kicked hope.
Tracked between Lincoln, Nebraska and Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Cowboy Practice is adorned with spare slide guitar, harmonica, warm vocal harmonies, and the easy pull of a rolling rhythm section. Across songs like “Stop Myself,” “Texasman,” and “Light Tower,” Sig holds a cracked mirror to the long, slow work of making sense of who we are.
Together with Mads Taylor, Tessa Dillon and Sofia Machray, Sig Wilder & Friends have become fixtures of Wellington’s D.I.Y. music community. As Sig reflects, “Cowboy Practice is about becoming content with who I am. That’s how it started, and I am in no way finished on that journey. But I’m happy with the cowboy that I’ve become, regardless of any notions of how one “should” be a cowboy.”