Watch Max Gomez Perform Live at Paste

Max Gomez split his time as a child between his hometown of Taos, N.M., and the Flint Hills of Kansas, gradually honing a musical identity that combines the sounds and attitudes of the South and the Heartland. Since the release of his debut album, Rule the World, in 2013, he’s shared billing on hundreds of stages with Shawn Mullins, James McMurtry, Buddy Miller, Jim Lauderdale, Patty Griffin and John Hiatt and others. Gomez’s new EP, Me & Joe (out Sept. 22 on Brigadoon Records), features Doug Pettibone on guitar and Greg Leisz (who’s worked with Eric Clapton and Jackson Browne) on pedal steel. The soundscape is acoustic and warm, a comfort zone for Gomez’s buttery vocals. “Senseless Love” and “Make It Me” reflect on love lost and, perhaps, found, while “Sweet Cruel World” sounds like it could find its way onto a Taj Mahal album. “Rule the World (Reprise)” revisits and re-works the title song of his debut album, which—like the new “Make It Me”—has the ring of a neo-classic. The surprise tune here is “Joe,” written by Max’s musical compadre, Jed Zimmerman. The song is sung from the point of view of a regretful character who compares cocaine to coffee and pain to cash in a powerful twist of emotion laid on a bed of steel guitar and swirling cellos.