Seattle-via-South Carolina singer-songwriter Austin Crane named his musical project Valley Maker after a Smog song, and he lists people like Will Oldham and Cat Power as influences. That should convey some of the rustic, sad-eyed folk sensibility he’s working with. On “Only Friend,” the first song from upcoming Valley Maker album When I Was A Child, Crane meditates on faith and his Southern upbringing over a constant ripple of acoustic guitar, gentle but insistent, while Amy Godwin lends his plaintive voice a ghostly echo. The video, directed by Joseph Kolean, matches the track’s sparse melancholy with a quick succession of shots of natural landscapes. Watch below.

Valley Maker has some tour dates coming up:

09/25 Seattle, WA @ Barboza (release show)
09/27 Portland, OR @ TBA
09/30 Bellingham, WA @ The Shakedown
10/07 Columbia, SC @ New Brookland Tavern
10/08 Raleigh, NC @ Local Band-Local Beer @ Tir na nOg
10/09 Charleston, NC @ Redux
10/10 Atlanta, GA @ The Drunken Unicorn
10/11 Nashville, TN @ The Stone Fox
10/12 Asheville, NC @ The Mothlight

When I Was A Child is out 9/25 via Brick Lane Records. Pre-order it from iTunes or Brick Lane.