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Max Gomez in Santa Fe

Though still only in his 20s, New Mexico native Max Gomez possesses melodies flow naturally, trenchant lyrics that express wise-beyond-his-years observations on the ways of the heart, laconic phrasing in a cafe mocha timbre, and guitar skills that can stand alone.

As a child, the first songs he learned to sing were originally recorded in the 50s by Johnny Cash. As a teenage guitarist he adopted Big Bill Broonzy as his blues master. And as a budding performer, he apprenticed in the rarefied musical climate of northern New Mexico, where troubadours like Michael Martin Murphey and Ray Wylie Hubbard helped foster a folk and Western sound both cosmic and cowboy. Splitting his childhood between there and a farm in the Flint Hills of Kansas, Gomez is at home in the heartland, too.

At 14, when Gomez performed at a benefit concert, he played Sunday Mornin Coming Downthe down-and-out classic by future labelmate Kris Kristofferson. Soon thereafter he was playing at the venerated Old Blinking Light. The school I went to was playing in that bar, he says. Country greats like Mentor Williams and Lynn Anderson frequented the place that led them to become fans of his music. Gomez moved to Los Angeles at 18 to pursue his music career and began writing songs and performing around the city. He wrote some songs with Shawn Mullins, who later recorded them. Thats when I began taking it all a little more seriously and turned my music into a job. In his early 20s he began recording his own songs with producers in New York, L.A., and Nashville. His debut album, Rule the World, was released in 2013 by New West Records, home to the likes of John Hiatt, Buddy Miller, and Steve Earle. Soon after, Kiefer Sutherland directed the music video for the single Run From You.Since the release of his debut , hes shared billing on hundreds of stages with stalwarts of the genre like Shawn Mullins, James McMurtry, Buddy Miller, Jim Lauderdale, Patty Griffin, and John Hiatt.

Jim Scottwhos worked with Johnny Cash, Tom Petty, and Lucinda Williamsproduced Gomezs new EP Me & Joe, which features Doug Pettibone on guitar and Eric Clapton and Jackson Browne accompanist Greg Leisz on pedal steel. The soundscape is acoustic and warm, a comfort zone for Gomezs buttery vocals.