If you are a fan of this blog or have been following me for awhile, you know I am a big fan of Caleb Caudle, a Stokes County, North Carolina, native whom I had the pleasure of discovering at the now, unfortunately, defunct Phuzz Phest nearly a decade ago in Winston-Salem.

Here’s what I wrote at the time for The Huffington Post:

“Caudle weaves the richness of the tobacco leaves he grew up between into the flavor of his songs. The singer-songwriter plays acoustic guitar and harmonica, rockin’ it out one minute and switching to a haunting ballad the next. Think Steve Earle pre-heroin.”

If you haven’t heard Caudle play, don’t take my word for how talented he is, go see him for yourself this holiday weekend at the Wake Forest Listening Room on Saturday, Aug. 30. Tickets are $20 and the show starts at 7:30 p.m.

According to the Listening Room’s website, Caudle’s show is also the release of his sixth studio album “Sweet Critters.”

Through sometimes shadowy arrangements that creep and lurk, Caudle continues to mine both the brightest and murkiest corners of his imagination, finding that purest of points where tenderness and grit collide, inspired by musical heroes like Buddy Miller and Guy Clark, and mentors like Elizabeth Cook and John Paul White. It was White who Caudle tapped to produce Sweet Critters, along with Ben Tanner, at the duo’s Florence, Alabama studio Sun Drop Sound.

White is also performing at the Wake Forest Listening Room on Sept. 6 but the show is sold out, according to the website.

“I was very excited to work with Caleb on this record. Iʼve been a fan for Iʼve been a fan for years and count him as a friend,” White says of working with Caudle. “Heʼs a stellar songwriter, so I knew heʼd bring the goods. And he did.” The album features Allison Russell, Aoife OʼDonovan, John Paul White, and Caudleʼs own touring band.

These songs are a showcase of Caudle’s singular command of language. He sees the world through a hyperreal lens wholly unique to him, one that renders dank humidity “horsefly heat,” a moody sky “cast iron skillet” dark, or a loved one’s “wind chime of a smile.” For Caudle, details are the last frontier in a world where thousands of new songs are created every day. As such, he weaves his intricate tales of redemption, sacrifice, forgiveness, and loss with the colorful threads of living, breathing characters and all the rich idiosyncrasies and ephemera that fill out their worlds.

Caudle and his band have played Stagecoach, Cayamo, Luck Reunion, Mountain Stage, Merlefest, Americanafest, The Long Road (UK), AMAUK (UK), and recently supported Marty Stuart, Steve Earle, Hayes Carll, Elizabeth Cook, Brent Cobb, Charles Wesley Godwin, Ray Wylie Hubbard, and many more.

In other notable news, Caudle is headed to his Grand Ole Opry debut in Nashville on Nov. 23! You can learn more on his website at https://www.calebcaudle.com/