Occupying his own unique space in American music somewhere between the throaty junkyard stomp of Tom Waits and the wild mercurial ramblings of Dylan, James Keyes is a musician who travels solo with only a guitar and his right foot beating out the time on a home made pedal board.

Gut-bucket blues, honky-tonk tear jerkers, songs of the road and its endless freedom, dark nights in smoky roadhouses and that long black ache of the broken American dream. It’s dark. And it’s hard and unforgiving, but it’s also human and warm.

Above all, his new album The Middle is an excellent record. Out 23rd November – pre-order from Bandcamp here.

Download James Keyes – Darkness Come Creeping mp3 (from The Middle)