For the past few years, Dena Miller has been putting out charmingly homespun demos as Deer Scout. Today, she’s announcing her proper debut album, Woodpecker, which will be out on Carpark Records on April 8. Lead single “Cowboy” is hushed but immediate, with a sing-songy quality that reminds me of the underrated (and sadly broken up) Free Cake For Every Creature. “I was a cowboy from out of state/ Thought I was a player but I got played,” Miller sings in the chorus. “Dust off my shoes wipe the sweat from my face/ If everyone is playing you gotta play the game.”

“‘Cowboy’ is based on the movie Midnight Cowboy,” Miller said in a statement. “It was written in a house in Ohio where the driveway was off a sharp bend on the highway, so if you were approaching it from the opposite side, you had to make a blind left turn into the gap in between the yellow turning arrows. It’s a song about feeling like you’re one step behind everybody else, like a small fish in a big pond, and being a little bit naive.”

Listen below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Cup”
02 “Cowboy”
03 “Synesthesia”
04 “Kat And Nina”
05 “Peace With The Damage”
06 “Dream”
07 “Breaking The Rock”
08 “Afterthought”

TOUR DATES:
04/08 New York, NY @ Rubulad (w/ Foyer Red, The Glow)
04/09 Washington, DC @ The Pocket
04/10 Philadelphia, PA @ PhilaMOCA

Woodpecker is out 4/8 via Carpark Records. Pre-order it here.