Paul Cauthen - Have Mercy (2018)

A wise man once said, "If you ain't first, you're last," and there may be no better mantra to summarize the life of Paul Cauthen. Full throttle, flat out, and with no margin for error, the Texas songwriter knows all about the art of the crash-and-burn. Which is what makes Cauthen one of the most fascinating, and eccentric, new voices in country music – and not just because of his Waylon-and-Cash-incarnate baritone.

"This whole songwriting thing, man, you just get to a point where you rip your hair out. You're like, 'I can say it right now, I know what I want to fucking say, but I can't fucking say it,'" says Cauthen, his voice climbing into a maniacal shout before trailing off into a cackle as he relaxes at the Belmont Hotel in Dallas, Texas. "I believe that's where art, when our madness just about kicks in" – he whistles, a glimmer in his eye – "watch out, that's where the true artist shines."

Seeing Cauthen – a frequent collaborator of Cody Jinks, the Texas Gentlemen and Margo Price – perform in person is to know that his is a death-defying routine. Often appearing in cowboy hat and suspenders, he dips and dives, weaves and wiggles, his 6-foot-4 frame shaking and skittering around the stage with surprising litheness. He sings like he's wrestling with a bull – or, to paraphrase the man in his own words, like "some fucking psycho dancing around" at a "snake-charming-ass Baptist church."

Raised in the church himself, religious imagery is writ large in Cauthen's music, including his new EP Have Mercy, out June 22nd on Lightning Rod Records. Raised in Tyler, Texas, he's the only grandson of a fourth-generation preacher from the Church of Christ. "I call it the belt buckle of the Bible Belt," he says of East Texas, where he attended services three times a week in his youth. "That's who I am, that's my upbringing. I can't deny it."