He keeps this up on the following song, "Indian Creek," where his use of acoustic guitar and strings forge a path for a more passionate sound than he's employed in the past. Echoing the likes of Charlie Sexton and Doyle Bramhall II, Quick embodies hints of the '80s without lifting from them. That vibe of records made in Southern California keeps coming on the third track, "Up In Smoke," where Quick adds piano to bring an uplifting sound to his music. An organ dances in the background of the chorus, and while the song isn't the best of the album, it shows you the songwriting that Quick is capable of.

However, the meat and potatoes of this record comes when the singer songwriter gives his distortion pedal a click, and the remixed and re-imagined sounds of "Keep Movin'," from his previous release offer plenty of groove and Southern twang. By amplifying the guitars and dropping Quick's vocals down a step, the song gives more uumph and push to the catchy tune. Quick gets a little country on the twangy sounds of "On The Line," though it's the blues harp opening of "Find My Way" that offers a strong standout of the release. When things get dirty, Quick is at his best when his gravelly voice and fuzz infused guitar take center stage. The final two songs of the release, "Endless Days," and "The Sound" are remixed versions of songs off of Quick's 2016 E.P. The Sound, but offer up a fresh take on their early incarnations to round out the album. However that isn't to say they're the same, as "The Sound" feels like there's more heft in this version, and Quick sounds better here than he did when the song was originally released.

Nathan Quick has definitely found his place on this record, and should finally get the recognition he's earned with such a straightforward release. By going full throttle in some places and holding back in others, Quick proves that you can breathe new life into a genre that hasn't sounded fresh in a good while.

Last year Quick released "City Lights," an EP that heralded the arrival of a bright new talent. This week he plays the Raven Tower behind "The Sound," a new single and the first from a full album due by year's end. Quick has a couple hundred raw song sketches, a backlog that resulted from a break between two periods of regular performing. By age 16 he was playing guitar with jazz bands around the city, as well as the jazz band at Bellaire High School. Quick describes himself as "a real timid singer," so he regularly found himself at SugarHill doing session work for others. "But the need for studio guitarists slumped, so that didn't last," he says.

He drifted away from jazz, "writing in the vein of Pink Floyd and classic rock sounding stuff. My father was into serious blues stuff like Lightnin' Hopkins - guys who did storytelling with their guitar as well as their voice. I was drawn to that, too." Quick found himself pulled toward various roots music - old country, classic blues, rock and roll - and he also found his voice, which showed no timidity. His recordings thus far have been assertive and far-flung: He operates confidently in spare singer-songwriter mode, but he also can bring a more forceful sound. He's also working up the best from hundreds of ideas that germinated on that oil rig. There are still logistical challenges, especially taking his songs outside of this region. "It's difficult with a band, either they're students or they have full-time jobs," he says. One member is a resident M.D.

"So I like putting things out frequently," Quick says. "A teaser here or there. Keep moving forward."

Starting with a thunderous bass drum that feels like it was recorded in the same hallway that Pixies’ “Bone Machine” was, the guitar squeals and meanders in before Quick adds some harmonica that feels closer to sixties era psych rock. When the slide guitar meets the echoing vocals of Quick’s howl, there’s a deeper connection with Southern blues formed in-between the notes. Utilizing that muddy Rio Grande gargle tone that Billy Gibbons seems to employ, the song has a dark quality filled with Quick’s despair in his reverb tinged vocals, like he’s calling out into the night for an answer. His solo, the mix that includes a thunderous beat, and that twangy harmonica find themselves flickering all over the song like lights that won’t seem to go out.

This song brings Quick’s sound full circle, where he does what he does best, play straightforward blues rock. “The Sound” feels like Nathan Quick at his best as a songwriter and as a recording artist, while adding to his mystique as an artist. You can hear “The Sound” live when Nathan Quick performs at Raven Tower on Saturday August 13th. The all ages show will feature a set from The Beans as well as Otis The Destroyer with tickets between $10 and $12.

Quick doesn’t hesitate to get things started with the Black Keys meets Flat Duo Jets sounding “City Lights.”  The song departs from the softer side of things he employed on his last release. There are elements of rockabilly, blues rock, and a hint of that throwback impression. It works, as Quick’s gruff vocals rasp in and out of the track that adds a distorted guitar growl full of tone and the melody of rock’s past. He even takes it further with a hook heavy chorus and a separated solo. He keeps things more on the rock side of things when he ventures into the second song, “Just Hold On.” Quick is definitely channeling more of Bruce Springsteen tone with the way he starts slow, picks up speed, then returns to the slower side on the song. The chorus has dual vocals, and even emotes a more Rolling Stones feel with the groaning solo and falsetto background vocals. This is a definitely different and more bluesy focus to Quick’s previous efforts, and it makes you wonder where this Keith Richards side to him came from.

Things close with the slower paced and almost Ryan Adams feeling “Dusk Til’ Dawn.” It might be the acoustic timber of the opening, but Quick sheds that quickly with a more John Mayer meets Clapton type of chorus. He cuts through that with a blues harp that feels like a second set of vocals. I know that Quick likes tobacco, and maybe that’s where this impassioned and raspy vocal he’s employing is coming from. Wherever its origin, it works for the artist on these three songs with ease. Quick makes you forget his previous works while keeping you impressed with his chops as a performer. The entire EP clocks in at under fifteen minutes, and commands another listen.

"City Lights" also shows off one of my favorite aspects of Quick: He doesn't play guitar solos. Well, he does, but not solos that someone who grew up with a poster of Slash on his wall would call proper guitar solos. Instead they are these shade-throwing bits of aggressive noodling that let you know that while Quick isn't going to bust out a three-minute solo that will blister paint, he totally could if he felt it. The song that's closest to his previous work is "Dusk 'til Dawn." Here's something I've never celebrated in a recording before; I've never heard a snare sound quite like the one here. I had the song blasting in my earbuds as I was doing a bit of housework, and the first pop of the snare I actually took them out because I thought there had been a fender-bender outside or a cat had toppled the TV. It's the backhanded metal clang that goes right through you, lending menace to the comparatively slow track.

Now, I do have to say that Quick probably won't go down in music history as the most inventive lyricist in the world. He spins a fine phrase, don't get me wrong, but his subjects are kind of safe and tropey even if they ooze sin and evil with every step. He's more like the world's best Sam Peckinpah film in song form. It's a comfortable darkness in addition to a danceable one. Nothing sums that up better than the closer, "Just Hold On." It's a largely clichéd collection of observations about feeling adrift and lost, but it's so solidly executed you can't help but dig it. Solid really is the best way I can describe Quick's three-song rolling stone here. It's big and there and unsubtle as it can possibly be. It's also unstoppably fun to listen to, a true Texas citizen of the music scene. You're going to want it on hand the next time you need a soundtrack to get into trouble by.

But returning home hasn't been stress-free for Quick, whose father died in May 2013. Losing his dad further motivated the musician to be the best at what he can do, both as a person and an artist. "Trying to better oneself is an endless journey," Quick says. "I think we all learn and grow every day whether we know it or not." When he last talked with the Press, Quick spoke of wanting to be a better person and feeling closer to who he wants to be and where he wants to go. Reporting on his progress, he says with a laugh, "I'm still working on that part."

A three-track EP, City Lights is short. Despite its brevity, however, it packs quite the punch, featuring the kind of thumping, rock-and-roll-inspired cuts that were absent from Quick's last offering. The Mile was a solid EP in its own right, more focused on lyrical content and containing something of an ethereal vibe throughout. The only thing missing was a bit of grit, but this release more than compensates for that. From the onset of City Lights, Quick and company sound fiercer than anything on their last album. The vocals are coarser, the guitars scratchier and the beats heavier.

In the eponymous opening track, Quick sings of restlessly driving around town late into the evening, likely en route to cause some trouble or perhaps running from his demons. It's the kind of song that makes you want to press the gas pedal down a little farther and chase the beat. Next, "Just Hold On" begins with a riff that would sound right at home on a classic-rock album, perhaps a KISS or Guns N' Roses record, with ghostly vocals mirroring Quick's lyrics throughout the verses and harmonizing on the choruses. And if Justified weren't already wrapping up its final season, I would expect "Dusk Til Dawn" to find its way into the show's soundtrack. Eerie guitar picking and ominous percussion underwrite a distorted harmonica that wails in the background like an oncoming train as Quick sings of trudging along.

And that's how City Lights ends, with the promise to continue on, perhaps as a wry commentary on the state of his celebrity or lack thereof in the local music scene, depending on whom you ask. Quick has found his sound, of this much he sounds certain. Fans who will be eagerly awaiting his full-length album now have a few new tunes to tide them over, and they might just be Quick's best work to date, which should excite longtime listeners and attract him even more fans.