The future’s bright for the young Angeleno
And an old song plays in his head
Far as he knows . . .

Introducing Sam Outlaw, a southern Californian singer-songwriter steeped in the music and mythos of west coast country, from the classic vibes of everything from ‘60s Bakersfield honky-tonk to ‘70s Laurel Canyon troubadour pop. With a sound that’s pleasurably past, present and future tense, Sam Outlaw's impeccable California country music shines on Angeleno, his debut album due on June 9, 2015 on Six Shooter Records.

“The music I play, I call ‘SoCal country,’” says Outlaw. “It’s country music but with a Southern California spirit to it. What is it about Southern California that gives it that spirit, I don’t exactly know. But there’s an idea that I like that says - every song, even happy songs, are written from a place of sadness. If there’s a special sadness to Southern California it’s that there’s an abiding shadow of loss of what used to be. But then, like with any place, you have a resilient optimism as well.”

While he explores those shadows on the title track and the elegiac “Ghost Town,” Outlaw mostly comes down on the side of the optimists through Angeleno’s dozen tracks. Opener “Who Do You Think You Are?” breezes in with south of the border charm, all sunny melody wrapped in mariachi horns, while “I’m Not Jealous” is a honky-tonker with a smart twist on the you-done-me-wrong plot. “Love Her For A While” has the amiable lope of early ‘70s Poco, “Old Fashioned” the immediacy of a touch on the cheek, and the future Saturday night anthem “Jesus Take The Wheel (And Drive Me To A Bar)” shows Outlaw has a sense of humor to match his cowboy poet nature. Throughout, producers Ry and Joachim Cooder frame the material with spare, tasteful arrangements, keeping the focus on Outlaw’s voice. And it’s a voice that indeed seems to conjure up California in the same way as Jackson Browne’s or Glenn Frey’s. Easy on the ears, open-hearted, always with an undertow of melancholy.

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Sam Outlaw is a relative newcomer to the music business, but he's a quick study. A self-released EP in 2014, buzz about his live shows and a video on CMT brought him to stages at both Stagecoach, California's Country Festival, and AmericanaFest, a crucial tastemaking stop on the conference/festival circuit. Meanwhile, as he prepared to self-produce his first-full length album, his drummer Joachim Cooder played some rough demos for his father, legendary guitarist Ry Cooder.

“When Ry expressed interest in working with me, it was just, ‘Holy shit, I can’t believe it!’” says Outlaw. “I mean, there’s no sweeter person to make a ‘country music in Southern California record about Southern California.’ He’s a master of so many genres.”

Recording in Megawatt Studios in Los Angeles, with a band that included Bo Koster (My Morning Jacket), Taylor Goldsmith (Dawes), Gabe Witcher (Punch Brothers) and Chuy Guzmán (Linda Ronstadt), Outlaw heard the album he always dreamed of coming to life. “Ninety percent of what you’re hearing is still the five of us in a room performing a song,” he says. “Ry plays on every song, electric and acoustic on the basics. And then all the overdubs he did were just insanely beautiful. He was able to make magic happen on every track.

The resulting record has the timeless feel of those that inspired Outlaw. It is also almost defiantly non-trendy. Does he worry about fitting in with a country scene teeming with bros and Bon Jovi wannabes? “This whole debate about what country music is or isn’t, bro country versus traditional, Americana versus Ameripolitan, it’s all pretty boring to me,” he says. “I think I made the distinction of SoCal country because I know that people crave classification. Ultimately I think that the music will speak for itself.”

As Outlaw gears up to support Angeleno with tour dates opening for Dwight Yoakam and Clint Black (“Two of my heroes,” he says), he’s hopeful not only for his own record buta comeback of the music he loves. “I’ve made it a personal mission to remind people how great country music is,” he says. “And specifically, I want to remind them that Southern California has a really rich history with country music. Even though there hasn’t been a scene here for a long time, there has been a noticeable resurgence. If I can be involved in some kind of revival in the spirit of this music, that would make me very proud.”

PRESS QUOTES:

"A Hollywood honky-tonker, Sam Outlaw filters the twang of his country influences through the Mexican-American culture of his Los Angeles home. The result? Angeleno, a debut album that mixes acoustic guitars, mariachi horns, James Taylor-worthy melodies and two-step tempos into the best culture clash this side of Linda Rondstadt's Canciones de mi Padre." - Rolling Stone

"Outlaw is hoping to take his place in a long line of California country acts that historically had a little more ssass, a little more sting, a little more attitude than their Nashville counterparts, going back to the days of Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, Wynn Stewart, Tommy Collins and numerous others who emerged in the 1950s and ‘60s." - LA Times