Mike Delevante will release his debut album, September Days, on April 11 on Truly Handmade Records, a label founded by Guy Clark LLC’s board of directors (including Grammy-winning author, producer, and filmmaker Tamara Saviano, who fell in love with the album at first listen). Not many artists release their first solo record two decades after their debut album but that’s the case for Delevante, who spent the 1990s recording and touring as half of trailblazing Americana duo the the Delevantes with his older brother Bob. The duo’s acclaimed releases on Rounder and Capitol records in that era made a splash — Long About That Time (Rounder) was the first #1 debut album on Gavin’s newly created Americana radio chart —and found them touring with like-minded artists including John Prine, Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, Levon Helm and others. So, while it’s hardly the first musical endeavor for Delevante, September Days is an important step for a musician who’d never put the spotlight directly on himself, until now. Produced by Joe Pisapia, whose production credits include work with Ben Folds, Guster, k.d. lang and many others, the album’s shimmering guitars and instantly memorable melodies recall some of the 90’s best guitar pop artists (Matthew Sweet, Freedy Johnston, Ron Sexsmith, The Jayhawks and more).

That decision was a long time coming. The Delevante brothers were New Jersey natives who’ve madeNashville their home since the ‘90s, along with frequent collaborator and co-producer, Garry Tallent of the E Street Band. Mike had shifted gears, focusing on visual arts. Both he and his brother had studied art in college, with Bob also turning more toward visual projects in the 2000s, but Bob had also made three solo records along the way. It was Tallent who got the brothers back into music. He’d enlisted them to sing on his 2019 solo album More Like Me, then invited them to be part of a live show he was doing in Asbury Park with Southside Johnny and special guest Bruce Springsteen. They had sucha blast that “I felt myself getting pulled back into it,” Mike says. The result was 2021’s A ThousandTurns. Its instantly appealing melodies and trademark sibling harmonies were a welcome return to form for the duo, whose mix of country and rock flowed naturally from brothers who came of age in New Jersey before moving to Nashville.

After A Thousand Turns, Mike began writing for a new Delevantes record, seeking to extend their newly regained momentum. But these songs were different. Many of them were quite personal; Mike reflected on people, places and experiences that helped to shape his life. He eventually realized he should do this on his own. “I had to get these stories out,” he says. To produce September Days, Mike enlisted fellow traveler Joe Pisapia, who coincidentally also had moved to Nashville from New Jersey with his own brother in the 1990s. They worked at Pisapia’s Middletree Studio in East Nashville, with Pisapia — whose production credits include work with Ben Folds, Guster, k.d. lang and many others — playing guitar, keyboards and pedal steel on the sessions. They brought in Tallent and Will Honaker on bass, Bryan Owings and Jamie Dick for drums, and his brother Bob to play harmonica. Mike sings all the vocals.

The end result is 13 tracks of dazzling melodicism that lure listeners into Delevante’s world of carefully crafted and pointedly emotional lyrics. Themes range from the regretful ruminations of “The Rain Never Came” and “Only Sometimes” to the determined resilience of “Don’t Count Me Out” and “Still Me,” from the quiet desperation of “Make Believe” to the new-beginnings redemption of “I Wrote To You.” Echoes of youthful Jersey glory days haunt several songs as well, notably the impressionistic “By Far And Away” and the wistful album-closer “Going Home.”

And so, September Days marks not only a return to the Americana turf the Delevantes staked out a quarter-century ago, but also a fresh debut from a singer-songwriter and guitar player who has earned his turn at center stage.