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<p>Mountain Top native Tony Halchak has a knack for writing songs that appeal to the blue-collar sentiment and coal country culture of his home region, but it was an impending move away from the Wyoming Valley that found the Americana songsmith at his most self-reflective.</p><p>Halchak, who moved with his wife and two daughters to Grand Rapids, Mich., in February, released his latest studio album, &#8220;Harvest Songs&#8221; on Aug. 29 on digital platforms. He is wrapping up a small tour of local release shows with a 9 p.m. performance today at the Backyard Ale House in Scranton as part of the Electric City Music Conference.</p><p>The record is an articulate collection of well-woven stories told over a mixture of alternative country, folk and blues.</p><p>&#8220;I had an idea of the story I wanted to tell,&#8221; Halchak said. &#8220;It was forming to be this family that had a farm in the Rust Belt, and several generations of the family lived there, and they couldn&#8217;t make ends meet anymore.&#8221;</p><p>Halchak, who began working on the project after the release of his well-received 2015 record &#8220;Even Giants Despair,&#8221; said he was trying to work with themes local people could relate to, and even considered introducing a fracking company into the plot.</p><p>&#8220;I tend to write a lot of songs and whittle them down for the record,&#8221; Halchak said. &#8220;I think I wrote about 200 songs. At one point, I realized it was becoming autobiographical and I was using that story as an analogy to my not wanting to leave the area.&#8221;</p><p>Halchak&#8217;s musical history in NEPA is notable. Since 2003, Halchak has spent time as a co-writer and performer in Barefoot &#8212; a band that also went through incarnations as Rippletree and Evernight &#8212; honed his instrumental chops in country band Farmer&#8217;s Daughter, and produced and performed live with Scranton indie-rock outfit Jung Bergo.</p><p>But when he took on songwriting under his own name, Halchak began to find his voice.</p><p>&#8220;I attack everything from a songwriter mentality,&#8221; Halchak said. &#8220;I&#8217;d never say I&#8217;m a great guitar player or singer, but I think, if I spend enough time on it, my songwriting is my best strength.&#8221;</p><p>Halchak&#8217;s modesty is endearing, but his prowess is more powerful than he lets on. His instrumentation is polished and diverse &#8212; he is capable with a guitar, bass and mandolin. And the combination of his low-register rasp and his eloquent lyricism calls to mind the critically-acclaimed solo work of former Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler.</p><p>The songwriter&#8217;s ability to capture the plight of the everyman makes his stories vivid to the listener. His song, &#8220;Used Car Blues,&#8221; for example, is about a salesman.</p><p>&#8220;There&#8217;s a lot of stories about the buyer but not about the salesman and how he has to make a living being portrayed as the villain,&#8221; Halchak said. &#8220;That song has a self-contained story of him saying to his wife, &#8216;I think it&#8217;s time to shut this thing down and get out of here.&#8217;&#8221;</p><p>The fact that Halchak&#8217;s own transplant is echoed is obvious, but his parallels go a step further in &#8220;Used Car Blues.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;My father is actually a used car salesman, and my mother&#8217;s name is Kelly,&#8221; Halchak said, pointing out he used the same name for the song salesman&#8217;s wife. &#8220;I was almost writing from that particular mind set.&#8221;</p><p>Produced at Bret Alexander&#8217;s Saturation Acres recording studio in Dupont, &#8220;Harvest Songs&#8221; features Alexander and fellow NEPA residents percussionist James Naylor and violinist Timothy Huh.</p><p>&#8220;I usually write the song and the structure, and Bret and I will sit down and play it acoustically and say, &#8216;Does it need anything just in this very basic form?&#8217; Then I&#8217;ll bring in the musicians, and I literally let them feel what the song is and let them put in what they feel they need to. I want each of the musicians to be themselves on the record,&#8221; Halchak said.</p><p>The players he&#8217;s collaborated with in the past have coined a phrase for Halchak&#8217;s particular type of fusion music.</p><p>&#8220;Black Diamond Americana,&#8221; Halchak said. &#8220;It&#8217;s Americana, but it has all those rough edges to it, whether it be blues or rock or something else.&#8221;</p><p>If Halchak&#8217;s hard-to-define style is the sum of his influences, the development of his songwriting is the sum of his maturity.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve taken a more introspective look at my life and the world, and it&#8217;s gotten a lot less of &#8216;I have all the answers&#8217; and more of &#8216;I don&#8217;t have any of the answers,&#8217;&#8221; he said. &#8220;My songs can come off as sad or melancholy, but I always bury some hope in there. Life can be tough, but if you search, there&#8217;s always a little glimmer of hope.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Tony Halchak released his latest album, &#8216;Havest Songs&#8217; on Aug. 29. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/web1_Tony3.jpg</photo0><caption0>Tony Halchak released his latest album, &#8216;Havest Songs&#8217; on Aug. 29. </caption0><photoCredit0>Courtesy of Doug Seymour </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/web1_TonyHalchakBand_resized.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Halchak&#8217;s new collection of songs became autobiographical when he realized the story he was writing was an analogy for his reservations about leaving his native NEPA for Grand Rapids, Mich. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/web1_TonyHalchakBand_resized.jpg</photo1><caption1>Halchak&#8217;s new collection of songs became autobiographical when he realized the story he was writing was an analogy for his reservations about leaving his native NEPA for Grand Rapids, Mich. </caption1><photoCredit1>Courtesy of Brittany Boote </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/web1_TonyLive_resized.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Halchak&#8217;s style has become known in local circles as Black Diamond Americana, a unique mixture of eloquent storytelling and American music fusion that includes blues, rock and folk. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/web1_TonyLive_resized.jpg</photo2><caption2>Halchak&#8217;s style has become known in local circles as Black Diamond Americana, a unique mixture of eloquent storytelling and American music fusion that includes blues, rock and folk. </caption2><photoCredit2>Courtesy of Brittany Boote </photoCredit2></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Americana songwriter Tony Halchak releases new album</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Matt Mattei</p><p>mmattei@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>IF YOU GO</strong></p><p><strong>What: </strong>Tony Halchak album release show</p><p><strong>Where: </strong>Backyard Ale House, 523 Linden St., Scranton</p><p><strong>When: </strong>9 p.m. today</p><p><strong>Additional information: </strong>Halchak&#8217;s newest release &#8216;Harvest Songs&#8217; will be available in physical copies at the show, but it is also available on digital platforms by visiting his website, <a href="https://tonyhalchak.com/" target="_blank">tonyhalchak.com. </a></p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Matt Mattei at 570-991-6651 or on Twitter @TimesLeaderMatt.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

NEPA native Tony Halchak releases new Americana record, “Harvest Songs”