Red Shahan Debuts Title Track Of New Album CULBERSON COUNTY Out March 30

On March 30, the West Texas troubadour Red Shahan will release Culberson County (via Thirty Tigers), the follow up to his acclaimed debut Men & Coyotes. Today, the Lubbock-based singer/songwriter shares the title track from the forthcoming album with Wide Open Country, who said "I really like to try to paint a picture of the real Texas, because there's a lot of stuff about Texas that people don't talk about," explains Shahan of his sophomore album Culberson County. "I mean, I'm with the next guy that wants to throw on a pearl-snap shirt and hoot and holler over a case of Busch Light, but at the same time ... how often are those people really happy? Because a lot of them come from some really hard and darker sides of Texas, and those are the things I want to bring light to."

Culberson County finds Shahan exploring the ebb and flow of the DARKNESS and light in the world around him. The album ranges from songs like "6 Feet," which tells the story of an incarcerated drug dealer dreading the cartel justice awaiting him on the other side, to "Someone Someday," (a rare co-write for Shahan, penned with Brent Cobb and Aaron Raitiere), where he sings a line about "rubbernecking all the outlaws" that lands as both a laugh-out-loud commentary on the modern Texas/Americana music scene and a playfully self-aware admission of his own aspirations and insecurity. And then there's the politically charged fist-in-the-air anthem "Revolution," which really isn't funny at all.

Like any self-respecting Texas singer-songwriter worthy of the title, Shahan can hold his own playing any of his songs solo acoustic, just like he writes them. But Culberson County is no one-man show. Like Men and Coyotes before it, this is very much a full-band affair, with Elijah Ford (an acclaimed solo artist in his own right) returning to the producer's chair, Matthew "Paw Paw" Smith (formerly with Ryan Bingham) back behind the drum kit and Shahan's old Lubbock buddy Parker Morrow on bass. Shahan himself played rhythm electric and acoustic, while special recruit Daniel Sproul was called in to handle most of the lead guitar for the sessions. Guests on the album include fellow Texas songwriters Charlie Shafter and Bonnie Bishop on background and harmony vocals, as well as Shahan's own mother, Kim Smith, who sings on the song "Memphis."

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