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 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.