Stanisland Magazine

The country musician gifts us his first new work in over 13 years.

The Murphy Bed man returns with what listeners will hope is a prelude to a new album. Chicago-based guitarist and singer-songwriter Austin Hartley-Leonard never fails to impress through the inventive ways he flips creativity. His new song is a vivid celebration of love and connection helped along by a bouncy composition.

Filled with his trademark care-free, adroitness in the art of acoustic, this time Hartley-Leonard presents with not only this, but horns and piano. Beginning the song with “Well I woke up on a hill at night, sky cut open, a thousand lights’ and “counterfeit romantic I was just burning for you” the rest of the song is deserving of the aforesaid considering our Illinoisan’s deftness in the craft of songwriting.

Following on from his last release Everywhere I’ve Never Been back in 2010, there was an assumption he perhaps retired. But here we are in 2023 bumping his upbeat performances void of any melancholy.

Arguably his most well-known work is Ohio, part of an EP filled with enough to keep his listeners content. But now he has released his latest On Top Of My Shoulders, fans will be wondering if there is a long play project on the way.

Listen to his latest below: