Photo by Lobo Sucio Creative
If you’ve ever had a hard day, thrown your hands up in the air, and said to yourself, “[expletive deleted] this! I’m outta here!” then you may know a little bit about where singer-songwriter Walker Lukens is coming from.
When the Brooklynite-turned-Austinite lost his day-job, Lukens hit the road. This wasn’t your laboriously-planned-down-to-the-minute kind of tour. No, Lukens took to playing wherever he could sleeping wherever he could. The trek took him all over the country, and even across the pond to France and Italy. He eventually landed in Austin, but along the way Lukens penned the tunes that would become his upcoming record Devoted (out April 2). A couple weeks back, Lukens released a single from the new record named “Dear Someone,” and it’s our song of the day.
Lukens’ earlier work definitely falls in the folk camp, but he took a more R&B-centric for his 2012 Year of the Dog EP. The latter record found Lukens using guitar and vocal loops to craft tunes that are as stripped-down as they are sonically adventurous. He strikes a middle path on “Dear Someone.” The gently strummed acoustic lends a pastoral flavor to a song that’s more dreamy, Pacific-hugging surf ballad than down-home folk tune or lo-fi R&B composition. There’s plenty of breathing room on “Dear Someone,” something everybody needs on those days when you’re ready to get away from it all.
On Thursday, February 21 Walker Lukens’ll be celebrating another new single from Devoted, “Kindle To Your Fire (Oprah Voice)” b/w “Casa Di Davide E Chiara,” with a show at The Scoot Inn. And for you collectors out there, it’s coming out in lovely 7″ vinyl form, so be sure to pick one (or a few) up when you get there.