For all of the attention that the Red-Dirt rockers get here in Texas (not that I am complaining), the softer voices that employ their lyrical perspective and vision – not chugging rhythms and screaming solos – to do the heavy lifting are often times over-looked or perhaps ignored by the larger audiences that reside outside of the coffee house acoustic gigs and hill-country campfire festivals.

Houston’s Matt Harlan (Official / Myspace) has recently released a solid, pleasing folk-rock record that places him into the ranks of the latter-day troubadours that share his ability to locate drama in a scenario that would seem bland or dreary to the untrained, naked eye. Harlan’s debut offering, Tips & Compliments (Berkalin), is packed with stories that avoid both somber monotony as well as indulgent melodrama and instead follows a path that has been traveled recently by fellow Texans Owen Temple and Walt Wilkins and is dotted with tales of change, abuse and rediscovery. Harlan has some serious folk bona-fides here. He has won several noteworthy awards, and also has some talented friends helping out, most notably members of Robert Earl Keen’s band and even The Belleville Outfit.

Overall, Harlan’s debut is a shining example of how honesty, skill and heart can be heard just as loudly as the next rocking ode to Shiner Bock surely will be.

LISTEN: Matt Harlan – “Elizabethtown”

LISTEN: Matt Harlan – “Tips & Compliments”