‘The Lonely Hunter’ is the third track released from The Wine of Youth, the new album by San Diego-based singer-songwriter Zach Phillips.

Based around a simple repeating guitar motif, Phillips weaves some sublime vocal melodies that rise and fall, circling those exquisite guitar notes and the subtle rhythm section. Lovely stuff.

“The Wine of Youth” is a distinctly California album, written and recorded after Phillips lived in SoCal for six years. A Chicago transplant, he called the record a tribute to the “old, weird California … the California of the desert, mountains, spiritualists and lovers. The California that taketh and giveth away, over and over and over again.” In other words, the off-the-beaten-path, less-celebrated essence of the state.

“The Wine of Youth has a few threads running through it theme-wise — California, the flow of time, universal cycles. But reflection, particularly on existential matters, might be the album’s heart. And it seemed as if everyone was reflecting on the big things. So, I figured the music could be a little cathartic for everyone.” – Zach Phillips

The Wine of Youth, available now, is a hybrid of experimental roots- and folk-rock, chamber pop and indie country — classic singer-songwriter-era music in the vein of Wilco, Ryan Adams and Jackson Browne.