The first full length album from Austin Texas songwriter, Matthew Payne is a follow up to an EP that he released in 2025.
His spirit guides are ‘Red Headed Stranger’ by Willie Nelson and ‘Nebraska’ by Bruce Springsteen.
He aims for the direct, stripped-down acoustic feel of those two albums. Other influences include Jack Kerouac, Tom Petty, Townes Van Zandt and Steve Earle.
Payne is backed by Kevin Smith on upright bass and Marty Muse on pedal steel or resonator. Co-producer JM Stevens adds harmony and percussion.
The ten country-blues songs are peopled by conflicted characters striving to build better lives. For example, the title track tells of an unemployed man struggling to care for his mother with dementia while raising a son: “Trying to open up my heart not keep closing it down.”
Though the mood is downbeat and the outlook relatively bleak, the songs are of seeking solutions rather than bemoaning his bad fortune. Heartsick is the story of Payne’s hometown of Dripping Springs, Texas, and coming to terms with “that lowdown feeling that you can’t go home again.”.
All the songs are short and direct so the total playing time amounts to a brisk thirty minutes.
Vulnerability and isolation are driving forces but the search for emotional connection means that the tunes are not as desolate as they could have been.
