Blending the nuance of a versatile cellist, the twang of a born-and-bred Texan, and a genre-hopping career spent collaborating around the world, Michael Shay's songs exist comfortably outside any "Americana" box while evoking his primary songwriter influences: Townes Van Zandt, Suzanne Vega, Robert Hunter, Leonard Cohen and Gillian Welch.

After two decades as the frontman of multiple world fusion, country, bluegrass, classical crossover and rock bands, 2023 sees Shay touring solo ahead of the release of "Motherland," a new album exploring themes of land, class, family, migration, gender, and the personal and historical mythologies emanating from his recent homes in New Mexico, Ecuador, and the Pacific Northwest.

This is what "Texas Folk" sounds like in the hands of a classically trained musician born and raised in Austin, but who spent as much of the last 15 years making music outside the USA as in it.