Vikesh Kapoor has announced his debut album, The Ballad of Willy Robbins, to be released October 15th via Mama Bird Recording Co. His first release on the Portland-based label, the record is a concept album that chronicles the brutal, but hopeful journey of a working-class man who slowly loses his ambition, health, family and shelter.

Growing up in rural Pennsylvania, Kapoor witnessed firsthand the hardships his parents faced as immigrants and the everyday challenges of small town American life — from domestic discord to the failures of the American health care system (and so much more in between). These early experiences led Kapoor to hole up in Portland, Oregon and write this record.

Just the kind of cheery stuff we love on MM – grab yourself the wonderful I Dreamt Blues, a narrative about endless work and the apathy that can accompany it that has echoes of Dylan’s harmonica and the vocals of a disillusioned Donovan.

You know I come home
by the sight of cigarette circles glowin’
to go blind was fine when we were young
but now dear, your disguise is fallin’
so I’m up again the next morning
an’ you and I, we keep it that way