Minneapolis Veteran John Deering Emerges from Three-Decade Hiatus with Blistering Single That Confronts Hypocrisy Through Gritty, Basement-Recorded Intensity His first song, "Strip Mall Jesus," is not just a throwback to the Seattle movement of the 1990s; it is a raw release of unresolved emotion, wrapped in analogue warmth and delivered with the unwavering honesty of someone who has nothing left to prove. Recording for "Strip Mall...

The moment the jaunty guitar kicks in on John Smyths’ new single, "Now I'm Wiser", you feel a familiar, comfortable warmth. It’s the sound of a good chair in a bar where the floor is sticky with spilled truths. And then the story starts, a classic yarn of a hard-living past yielding to a peaceful present. Smyths, a Dutch ex-metalhead singing country out of...