Listening to Zach Willdee and his pure country sound, you’d think he grew up in the south, influenced by front porch pickin’ and barroom ballads. You might even picture him busking on the sidewalks of places like Austin, Nashville, or New Orleans, the traditional music towns where performers learn their trade and cut their teeth on entertaining a fickle crowd, but I bet you’d never guess he’s a Massachusetts native and spent his years busking not in the usual music towns, but instead on the streets of Provincetown, MA. Lifeguard by day and street performer at night, Willdee, or The Barefoot Brother as he was called, started busking at age 14 and honed his craft over the years. Before long, lines formed to get into the local clubs and bars he was playing at. Much like his background, Zach’s music is full of layers and unexpected surprises. Although his music brings to mind country greats like Johnny Paycheck or even Waylon Jennings, he strikes the delicate balance of drawing inspiration from those that have come before and forging his own unique sound. It’s pure country with a twist.

His album, Heart That Ain’t Tame, is out on May 6th, but today, we’re debuting his single, “Climbing the Ladder,” which is out everywhere on April 1st. It’s a “barn-burner of a honky-tonk tune, chronicling love and loss,” but not necessarily only the romantic loss you might expect within a typical country song. Instead, this is a song about the loss of a friendship, something almost every one of us has surely experienced within our lives. The upbeat tempo of the pedal steel, the tinkling piano and fiddle all give the illusion of a bright, let’s hit the dance floor kind of song, but upon closer inspection, it’s a song that chronicles the pain of being talked about behind your back, feeling no matter what you give it’s inadequate, and that you’re just not good enough.

Listen to Zach’s single below and make sure you check out the rest of the album, when it’s released on May 6th.