William Clark Green - Ringling Road (2015)

With his world-weary voice and ragged, country-rock warmth, Austin-based singer/songwriter William Clark Green cuts an appealing figure in the Americana and Red Dirt scene. His 2013 album, Rose Queen, spawned a couple of number one hits in his native Texas with "She Likes the Beatles" and "Hanging Around," and his 2015 follow-up, the colorful Ringling Road, charges out of the gates on the strength of its powerful title track. That song and other parts of the album are thematically based around the town of Eastland, Texas, where legend has it that the Ringling Brothers bought a large plot of land where their circus train and its inhabitants would camp out, causing all manner of misfit mischief. Green's whiskey-soaked, banjo-led country rocker presents a rich world of old-time weirdos that shows off both his songwriting and powerful voice. Working again with Rose Queen producer Rachel Loy, Green has given Ringling Road a sense of immediacy and its bevy of strong tracks should invite an even bigger audience to discover this Lonestar troubadour's charms.