A native of West Texas, Red Shahan departed from the Lone Star State's Red Dirt country by splicing hardscrabble country with evocative, edgy rock & roll. It was a hybrid showcased on his 2015 debut, Men & Coyotes, but sharpened on 2018's Culberson County. Raised in the Lubbock area, Shahan relocated to Fort Worth when he decided to pursue music full-time in the mid-2010s. He assembled a backing band, hooked up with producer Elijah Ford (who also doubled as Shahan's lead guitarist), and released his debut, Men & Coyotes, on Magnolia Records in 2015, and he steadily built up a regional following that soon crept nationwide. Signing to Thirty Tigers, Shahan released his second album, Culberson County (which was also a Ford production and featured a songwriting collaboration with Brent Cobb), in March 2018. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine