One of my favourite Americana artists is Matthew Houck, a native of Athens, Georgia, who makes music under the nom-de-plume Phosphorescent.

Like his hometown’s other celebrated band, R.E.M., his music has a kind of country-tinged indie flavour. But what first attracted me to it was the wistful, yearning sense of melancholy in his voice.

It has a pleasing roughness around the edges, that matches the honesty of his lyrics and the Americana-flavoured music that adorns it.

Since starting out as more of a backwoods folkie, he has embraced the flavours of country music, in the process coming up with what remains one of my favourite songs of all time, The Mermaid Parade.

He then took a swerve into electronica, finding his greatest success with Song For Zula, which often appears in the soundtracks of films and TV shows.

Houck spent lockdown recording distinctive cover versions of some lesser known songs by some of his favourite artists – Bob Dylan, Randy Newman, Fleetwood Mac – released with each full moon.

Now comes his first self-penned collection since 2018. This is the title track, Revelator, and like so much of his music it’s beautiful.