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Authenticity can’t be faked. So when an artist hails from the heartland and shares stories drawn from personal experience, the music resonates in ways that genuinely express their passion and purpose. Josh Merritt is one of those artists.
A native of Owensboro, Kentucky, he inherited the grit and honesty so essential to heartland culture. Having spent the better part of the past decade honing his chops on the Southern tour circuit, Merritt slides effortlessly into his own on debut studio release Reynolds Station, a stirring collection of autobiographical songs that recount his tumultuous childhood in the clutches of rural America’s amphetamine epidemic. A countrified concept album, it’s a grim testament to the tragedy that has upended so many lives and led to the loss of both faith and fortitude. Taken from his young mother as she struggled with drug addiction and raised by his grandparents, Merritt experienced the effects of substance abuse at close range.
“I’m not necessarily trying to impart any big lesson here,” Merritt says, “I’m just trying to tell people about what I’ve experienced, to share this album with people who have gone through the same thing so maybe they’ll be able to relate and find a connection to their own experience.”
