With ‘Scarlett Roses,’ Grayson Capps first solo release in six years, the acclaimed Alabama songwriter showcases the kind of understated brilliance that can blossom when creativity is detached from expectation, when songs are truly given the space and time to find their writer.

Capps wrote the album slowly and steadily. Recorded over two whirlwind sessions with his partner, the Grammy Award-winning engineer/producer, Trina Shoemaker. The collection tackles the heavy burdens of growing older: separation from loved ones, the weight of fatherhood, the mortality of our parents, self-medication. As serious as it may sound, Capps manages to write with an eye towards beauty and humor, extracting hard-won catharsis and even genuine joy from pain and loss.

Hailed by NPR for his “unbridled energy and authenticity,” Capps first emerged as a solo artist in 2005. His debut record, ‘If You Knew My Mind,’ earned rave reviews. American Songwriter declared, “Take the poetry of Texas troubadour Townes Van Zandt, combine with Steve Earle’s edgy attitude and stir with a little cup of the bayou-blues (think Howlin’ Wolf) and you start to get a taste of Capps’s scrumptious gothic gumbo.” He has since gone onto release five similarly exalted albums that have earned him devoted followings in both the US and Europe.