John Statz

John Statz may not be a full-time resident of Denver, but the Mile High City shouldn't take it personally. The singer-songwriter's unquenchable wanderlust has taken him from Colorado to Wisconsin to West Virginia to Hungary, and during his travels, he wrote Ghost Towns, a full-length dripping with folk-rock immediacy and...

By Jason Heller

October 14, 2010

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John Statz may not be a full-time resident of Denver, but the Mile High City shouldn't take it personally. The singer-songwriter's unquenchable wanderlust has taken him from Colorado to Wisconsin to West Virginia to Hungary, and during his travels, he wrote Ghost Towns, a full-length dripping with folk-rock immediacy and the kind of grit that cooled heels never gather. Falling somewhere between Tom Petty's impeccable pop classicism and Lucero's roughhewn twang, the disc embraces a scope both internal and external; from "The Wichita Waltz" to "Night Train to Sarajevo," Statz relives late nights, dirt roads and open skies the likes of which city eyes never see. "I'm flying home, 'cause my girl is my country," he sings on "Best Girl," and that one line sums up how Statz approaches his music — that is, cartography as medication and travelogue as confessional.

Jason Heller is a staff writer at Westword. He's the author of the book Strange Stars: David Bowie, Pop Music, and the Decade Sci-Fi Exploded (Melville House/Penguin Random House), and has contributed to the New Yorker, The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork and NPR.org. His work has won a Hugo Award and a Colorado Press Association Award.

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