Matt Hillyer has spent three decades mixing rockabilly, western swing, outlaw country, and honky-tonk into a sound that’s unmistakably his own. His latest album, Bright Skyline, released June 21st on State Fair Records, is the follow-up to 2021’s Glorieta. Producer John Pedigo (Old 97s, Vandoliers) helmed the sessions, recorded in Hillyer’s hometown of Dallas with pedal steel legend Lloyd Maines and Willie Nelson bassist Kevin Smith.

Hillyer fronted honky-tonk band Eleven Hundred Springs for 23 years before it ended in 2021, following stints in rockabilly outfit Lone Star Trio and rock band Strap on the Deep Ellum scene.

He went solo in 2014 with If These Old Bones Could Talk.

Bright Skyline’s eleven tracks range from co-writes with Max Stalling and Mando Saenz to the title track, a reflection on Dallas’s unhoused population inspired by Hillyer’s daily school drop-off route.