Sam Outlaw's Career Shows Just How Much Difference A Year Can Make

When LA country singer Sam Outlaw first visited Australia last year opening for Justin Townes Earle he was something of an unknown quantity, but still managed to impress many with his mariachi-tinged music and affable, laidback demeanour. Now barely a year later he's returning under his own steam to participate in the second instalment of the Americana-inspired Out On The Weekend Festival - plus some select capital city headline shows - and his career has taken on a whole new trajectory with the recent release of his debut long-player, Angeleno.

Outlaw (that handle being his mother's maiden name rather than a mere country pseudonym) recorded the album in North Hollywood with the legendary Ry Cooder both producing and playing on the album, augmented by members of Dawes, My Morning Jacket and Punch Brothers. It's a solid collection of songs in that finest California country-rock tradition, betraying not just a good musician but a burgeoning songwriter as well. It's little wonder that his life has been tipped on its head of late.

"I'm still in that stage of  …  getting people to check out a guy whose last name is Outlaw without them being too thrown off."

"It feels like since I was in Australia last that I've lived two or three lifetimes," Outlaw chuckles. "It's been quite busy - mostly enjoyable but busy - and when you're on the road for weeks and months on end it's pretty exhausting. It feel like the hard work's paying off though - this is kinda like year zero for me, and I'm still in that stage of getting to hear me for the first time, or getting people to check out a guy whose last name is Outlaw without them being too thrown off. But it's been great to finally show off the live show with the full band, it's been fun."

Outlaw is still pinching himself about getting to work so closely with Cooder, whose son Joachim had been playing drums in Outlaw's band. The elder Cooder even sat in on the band for some gigs during pre-production to get a feel for the songs he would be working on in the studio.

"I was obviously lucky to have worked with a great producer and a great band on that record, I feel really lucky," Outlaw marvels. "It was a great experience working with Ry, and I still feel incredibly fortunate that he was not only willing to work with me - not only to produce the record but also play guitar on all the songs as well. It was a blast and it's fun to be able to look back and say 'I made a record with Ry Cooder.' It's kinda crazy."

Of course no matter the production talent an album isn't going to work without cool songs, and Angeleno has those in spades. Outlaw explains the album's some of those songs have been in his set for ages, while some were of a newer vintage.

"It really was a mix," he tells. "Probably let's say a third of the songs I'd had for a few years, and then maybe a third of them were recent and the last third I was finishing writing in the studio. So it was a mix of those things, which is why I think Angeleno works as a real debut. To me it gives people a sampling of my songwriting over the last five years and shows the progression.

"Growing up in Southern California exposed me to all of those great kinds of music."

"When I first learned to play guitar when I was 15 or 16, once you realise you can put your own chords together to make up songs, right away I was inspired to try songwriting. But I don't think it was really until I dove headlong into country music that I found a style that I could really connect with from a songwriting perspective."

Outlaw stumbled headlong into the country music via discovering the indubitable talents of Emmylou Harris and George Jones, a pretty great introduction by anyone's standards.

"Yeah, I really did," he chuckles. "There was one country band I grew up on which was a great Western swing band called Asleep At The Wheel, led by Ray Benson. That was a band that my Dad loved, so growing up that music was in my childhood every road trip and vacation and holiday. But it wasn't until my early 20s that I discovered George Jones and Emmylou Harris on a TV show about country music, and they totally blew my mind."

And of course given his upbringing Outlaw was soon drawn to the fertile grounds of West Coast country, and this potpourri of styles can be heard all through his music.

"It's not completely straight ahead honky-tonk music, it kinda has the honky-tonk thing mixed with the singer-songwriter tradition and then - especially on Angeleno - you can hear the Mexican influence as well with the mariachi flourishes," Outlaw offers. "Growing up in Southern California exposed me to all of those great kinds of music, and even people like Gram Parsons - who people often compare me to - not only did he love country music but he also loved that Southern California singer-songwriter thing too. It makes for a cool mix."