Raised in East Nashville, indie folk/Americana singer/songwriter Luke Roberts spent his formative years singing and dancing at church and taking saxophone lessons before picking up an acoustic guitar. His experiences exploring the rougher edges of town, specifically the old train yards, helped to fill in the stories and characters on his debut album. Recorded by Kyle Spence (Harvey Milk) in Athens, Georgia, Big Bells and Dime Songs was released in 2010 on the Ecstatic Peace! label, and reissued in 2011 on Thrill Jockey. After touring, he moved three times -- from Brooklyn (where he wrote and recorded his debut album) to Montana to his childhood home of Nashville. Roberts recorded 2012's more lushly illustrated The Iron Gates at Throop and Newport with Marky Nevers in Nashville. Roberts spent the next four years engaging his wanderlust via travels to New York, Cambodia, Thailand, and Kenya, that latter of which provided much of the inspiration for his third studio LP, 2016's Sunlit Cross. ~ James Christopher Monger