Adam Torres

More than a decade after Adam Torres achieved cult status in small town Athens, Ohio, through 2006 solo debut Nostra Nova, the now local troubadour continues harking back to deeply intimate and rural Americana on I Came to Sing the Song. While the full-length gleaned pop, the new four-track EP serves as an extension of 2016's four-star Pearls to Swine. Cut during those sessions, bare-bones acoustics imagine vast Appalachia terrain and ancient foothills reliant on the grace of God. Torres' evocative timbre and organic instrumentation ride finger-plucked melodies that roll like tumbleweeds on "Green Mountain Road," and reverb-cloaked guitar strums gasping for air in the pine cone frost of "Hatchet." A soaring falsetto carves jagged mountains in "Spyder Song," trailing through haunting and desolate topography. I Came to Sing the Song traverses landscapes both physical and emotional. (Album release: Cactus Cafe, Sat., Feb. 25)