Jason Hawk Harris hit rock bottom during the writing and recording of his debut full-length Love & the Dark. In the last few years, the Houston-born-and-raised, Los Angeles-based musician endured life-altering hardships—illness, death, familial strife, and addiction—yet from these trials, a luxuriant and confident vision of art country emerged.

Bloodshot first caught Jason at Folk Alliance in Kansas City in 2018, when he gave goosebumps to everyone within the dingy walls of a tiny hotel room with his evocative, powerful, and unrestrained live duo set. Later in the year, he opened up for our own Sarah Shook & the Disarmers on a run of tour dates, after which Sarah relayed her wholehearted approval.

With an unlikely background, Harris is a singer/guitarist/songwriter who walks his own line, one that touches on Lyle Lovett’s lyrical frankness, John Moreland’s punk cerebralism and Judee Sill’s mysticism and orchestral sensibility. There’s even the literary and sonic audacity of an early Steve Earle, an outlaw unafraid to embrace harmony.