Skyscraper Stan has built a name for himself over the last few years as a beacon of songwriting on the Australian music landscape. He’s part of the Americana scene but he nimbly traverses the genre without pitching his tent in any one corner. He’s a little bit country, a connoisseur of folk music and an exponent of rock n roll, with a strong sense of performance laced with dry humour.

‘Tarcutta Shade’ is the evocative new single and the opening track from Stan’s second studio album Golden Boy – due for release in May 2019. In his own words, “The lyrically intricate song paints a picture of life at a highway truck stop halfway between Melbourne and Sydney in the dusty Riverina region of NSW. Instrumentally the track delivers a sonic representation of the heat and vast emptiness of that area.”

Read the opening verse and you get an idea of the refined and poetic way Stan sets scenes and establishes emotional and geographical moods in his songs. Pair that with a soundtrack that includes a searing guitar solo from Oskar Herbig and you’ve got one hell of a song.

Blood and bone bake on the bitumen
She’s at the counter counting cars as they pull in
Cream coloured cotton clings to her skin
Its forty degrees in the shade