Dan Dyer: with a big-time booster like Lenny Kravitz, this singer-songwriter who battled his way out of the Texas backwoods is music's newly anointed anthem maker

It's not surprising that Lenny Kravitz signed Dan Dyer as the flagship artist of his new label, Roxie Records: Dyer's debut album, ... Of What Lies Beneath (Roxie/Reprise Records), sounds classic fresh out the box. Songs like "Great Ocean" sprawl with the epic troubadour funkiness of Jeff Buckley and Van Morrison, and the romantic idealism of Queen and U2, and Kravitz himself sits in on most of the tracks.

Indeed, it's all been a long, strange trip for Dyer, a self-described poor-white-trash singer-songwriter from the ragtag outskirts of Austin, Texas. He got his ticket out of the Lone Star State--and away from the "stereotypical Austin blues-rock jam-band thing"--after a friend introduced him to Kravitz. When Dyer moved to New York City, Kravitz asked the then-unknown musician to open a show for him, solidifying the partnership that produced ... Of What Lies Beneath. Still, despite the move to the big city, Dyer can't shake his heartland roots. "Growing up in the country with not a lot of money, the people are more soulful," he explains. "My record is a lot about spirituality--not in any specific religious sense, but just the notion of being soulful and how that opens you up as a person."

Matt Diehl is a contributing music editor for Interview.

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