Andy Palmer's bio reads like a character sketch for an action movie: A onetime public defender in Brooklyn, Palmer left the borough for a more rustic life, working as a river raft guide in Colorado and living in a yurt in the wilds of Maine. It's a rugged resumé that seems to inform every track on Sometime Around, the singer-songwriter's thoughtful and gritty debut (due for release at the Walnut Room on Friday, October 14). With vocal echoes of Tom Waits, lyrical ties to Leonard Cohen and acoustic guitar rooted in American folk traditions, Palmer's album plays like an intense and meditative statement. His concentrated growl is the constant across a variety of structures and themes, tying epic lyrics on songs like "When History's Done" to more traditional lovelorn cues on "Grr." Overall, the record is a work of intense self-inspection, pulled from days spent navigating rivers and nights spent on frozen steppes.