Christian Lee Hutson

You can’t get far in a Christian Lee Hutson song before a pretty scene or gentle start turns sour, jarred by reality. Sometimes, the turn is crude; other times, sardonic. On his second album, Quitters, opener “Strawberry Lemonade” starts, “In a dream drinking strawberry lemonade/Feeding quarters to a pinball game,” then adds evenly, “Getting paid to look the other way.” Quitters, his hushed, pseudo-reverential singing over finger-picked folk starkly contradicts lyrics about betrayal, impropriety, and illness. The album relies upon mutated memory, half-truths, and sly one-liners to carry a cast of characters through an ever-changing California landscape. The songs’ vignettes are blurred and roving, with characters inspired by everything from Hutson’s own life to books and TV. In one, the na...