Blake Smeltz’s "Heartbreak Highway" is an exciting new voice in country music, a raucous storyteller with ashes in his heart and dirt on his shoes. Out today, the nine-track odyssey is a searing soul-punched trip through heartbreak and healing with every emotion in between.
Clocking in at a mere 31 minutes and change, "Heartbreak Highway" was produced by William Gawley along with Michelle Robertson and Dave Flint, but its influence lasts longer than the playing time. "Rooted in classic country sincerity but textured with a modern heartland rock sensibility, Smeltz pulls from the raw energy of Zach Bryan and stadium-ready emotional weight of Luke Combs (while still maintaining his own voice…and edge).
The album starts with a wallop and doesn’t give up. Lead singles such as “Nicotine Daydream” and "You Ain’t Whiskey" are electric punches of emotion, laced with reckless nostalgia and a heavy-lidded ache that’s somehow youthful again in the best way. Singing in gravel-edged tones, Smeltz is direct and wounding, turning his own scars into anthems for anyone who’s ever lit a match to love only to watch the thing burn out.
The opening title track, “Heartbreak Highway,” is a standout that frames the album’s emotional timbre with lyrical detail and cinematic scope reminiscent of long drives and longer nights. Meanwhile, “Good Faith” slows down a bit with tender, bittersweet reflection that demonstrates Smeltz’s range as not only an expressive vocalist but also as a deeply intuitive songwriter.
Yet whether racing down memory lane or licking new wounds, Smeltz is here to show that he’s lived them. The production is tight but never glossy, every steel-string echo and vocal crack lands where it hurts. On "Heartbreak Highway," Blake Smeltz establishes himself as a new country artist to watch, and the voice for anyone who’s ever loved hard and lost even harder.
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