Daniel Hutchens’ Lovesongs For Losers drops today at Autumn Tone -- it’s our first proper release. When Hutchens and I first began batting around the idea of working together on his next project, the initial idea was to knock out another acoustic-based “singer-songwriter” driven recording in the vein of his solo debut, 2003’s LESSER. What came out of the recording sessions at Barbe’s studio in Athens is an entirely different animal altogether—and I couldn’t be happier.

The record plays like the bastard child of Hutchens’ long running rock & roll outfit Bloodkin with the quirkier, creative shadings and nuances of his solo work. It’s the sound of an American bard from the South—there is no artifice here. I highly endorse not only this recording, but encourage fans of the Drunkard, and/or Southern Gothic/Americana/No Depression, to seek out LESSER, the seven Bloodkin LPs, and of course Hutchens’ live gigs. This guy is a national treasure, and I’ll stand on Steve Earle’s coffee-table in my Jack Purcell’s and say just that.