Flatlands

When asked to describe his music, Ryan Culwell says, “listening to my music is like watching No Country For Old Men...all the emptiness and violence will either scare you away or you’ll find yourself alone at 3am with it on repeat.” His songs tell tales of oilfields, honky tonks, loss, fistfights, and the forgotten place that is the panhandle of Texas. On March 3rd, Ryan Culwell will release Flatlands, his first album in more than 8 years, on Lighting Rod Records (Jason Isbell, Billy Joe Shaver, Amanda Shires). Culwell was born in Perryton, TX and spent most of his life among the company of roughneck oilfield men in a small town near the epicenter of the Dust Bowl. Like many from West Texas, Culwell loves the land and he hates it, bearing all the scars of a man who believes he can find mountains in a landscape that resembles a table top. He’s not unlike Tom Joad: tough, but gentle. But tough. Like one of the album’s most powerful songs, he’s got “Piss Down In His Bones,” but don’t let that scare you away from an artist that’s certain to be one of 2015’s new voices in American music.