Holler Dreamy Draw Session: Logan Halstead

There's an easy-going aura to West Virginia via Kentucky songwriter Logan Halstead.

Heading to Arizona following a notable appearance at Americanafest in Nashville the week before, Halstead arrives with a mellow charm. Sporting a kaleidoscopic orange shirt, he eases into the weighty, vulnerable songs that made him a household name in the Appalachian scene.

With Kentucky rising artist Ella Webster accompanying him on the fiddle, the pair delve into the tenderness at the heart of Halstead's debut album, Dark Black Coal.

At times, Halstead's lyrics offer pleasantly simple observations. 'Kentucky Sky' wanders between vivid imagery of birds resting on fence posts and daydreams of dancing with the one you love under the setting sun.

The warmth of his words and the gentle strums make you think of home, a suitable consequence considering how much the Appalachian pines inform Halstead's music.

Despite its bouncier tempo here, 'Man's Gotta Eat' is a striking examination of the desolation the opioid epidemic left on large swathes of Appalachia and America.

As the pair bop and sway to their old-timey ode, Halstead sings from the perspective of someone struggling to make ends meet, carefully retelling the state of the human condition and the lengths we'll go when forced to survive.

Perhaps Halstead's most hopeful song, 'Bluefoot', floats beautifully once again between dreams and aspirations and the joys of keeping two feet firmly on the ground.

Under the comforter of Halstead's trembling drawl and Webster's rippling fiddle lines, you're sent to a place of solace and escape.

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