Phosphorescent

Much like hymns, Matthew Houck’s songs as Phosphorescent have all the vulnerability of a soul offering itself up for redemption. Born in 1980 in Huntsville, Alabama, Houck released some lo-fi recordings as Fillup Shack before adopting the Phosphorescent name in 2001. His creaky, plaintive singing voice proved to be the ideal instrument for his indie-slanted take on lonesome country and folk, and he devoted 2009’s To Willie entirely to songs penned by Willie Nelson. Open about such influences, Houck references Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire” at the start of “Song for Zula,” the breakthrough track on his 2013 album Muchacho. Mingling drum machine and strings, that haunting ballad echoed the record’s wider interlacing of synthesizers and steel guitar. Still, Houck never seems too distant from the deep well of classic country, as heard on his 2022 rendition of Vern Gosdin’s 1993 chestnut “Any Old Miracle.”