Nick Spear releases 'Train Wreck of a Heart'

Released this week, Nick Spear’s independent album “Train Wreck of a Heart” resonates with a wistful beauty that defines a brooding new sound.

A Montana-based singer songwriter, Spear’s songs have been featured on television’s A&E and Lifetime networks, onstage at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and at various corporate events, including the Google AR/VR Developers’ Conference. He has opened for many artists including Livingston Taylor, Mac McAnally, Tegan and Sara, Flock of Seagulls and Missing Persons.

Spear’s brand of Americana Gothic flows stylistically from Death Cab for Cutie and Hozier to Leonard Cohen and Townes van Zandt, a press release said. The album is 12 tracks of lush and cinematic songs that evoke a strong sense of place. From the first track, “Born to Live in Love With You,” Spear’s longing baritone weaves effortlessly through dustbowl banjos and otherworldly low synths in what sounds like a Spaghetti Western-meets-Blade Runner mash-up. The lounge noir of the title track seems to be sung from the smoky stage of a 1960s border town bar, with David Lynch bartending, and Spear’s lone cover song — Kurt Weill’s, “I’m a Stranger Here” from the 1944 musical “One Touch of Venus” — could be the theme for a transgender vampire reboot of the James Bond franchise.

“Train Wreck of a Heart” is a distant dark and sparkling howl from the outland of Montana.

To see the first video from album, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--PZ3rVWfYg