This is what "Texas Folk" sounds like in the hands of a classically trained musician born and raised in Austin, but who has spent as much of his career making music outside the USA as in it.

In the twenty years since Michael Shay released his first singer/songwriter album "Lines of Darkness, Lines of Light", he has led multiple world-fusion, Americana, classical crossover and rock ensembles in both North and South America.  Coming full circle after two decades, 2026 sees Shay releasing his second solo album of original songs, exploring themes of land, class, home, migration, and escape.

In addition to his earliest influences in Townes Van Zandt, Robert Hunter and Suzanne Vega, on this new recording you might also hear echos of Greg Brown, Neil Young, Gillian Welch, and even Leonard Cohen who once complimented him on a cover of “Suzanne” in which Shay had altered a lyric, saying it was “a better line anyway!”