Texas singer and songwriter Josh T. Pearson is best known as the frontman for the short-lived cult indie roots band Lift to Experience, who issued a self-titled EP in 1997, a single, and a sole double album, The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads (which is the stuff of underground legend), in 2001 before splitting. Pearson spent the next decade touring in the U.S. and abroad, including appearing as an invited guest at several All Tomorrow's Parties festivals. Recordings under his own name include an official live bootleg entitled To Hull and Back recorded in the U.K., a live DVD single, and one side of a single he split with Australia's Dirty Three; his half is a stellar version of Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry." Pearson has done some sideman work, most notably as a guest vocalist on two tracks on the Bat for Lashes full-length Fur and Gold. He reunited with former Lift to Experience drummer Andy Young, with Robert B. Weaver III of the Paper Chase on bass, to support My Bloody Valentine in Austin, Texas in April of 2009 during their re-formation tour. He moved to Paris later that year and joined a nightclub band with Bosque Brown and H-Burns. He left Paris in early 2010 for Berlin. Pearson signed to Mute Records in 2010 and recorded his debut for the label, Last of the Country Gentlemen. The album's first single, a kind of minimalist epic pop number entitled "Country Dumb," was released in early March of 2011. The album followed a few weeks later. Pearson returned in 2018 with his sophomore solo album, The Straight Hits!, a set of ten tracks, each of which featured the word "Straight" (or "Straits") in its title. Released via Mute once again, the record was a departure from the sound of its predecessor and focused on more straightforward song structures, replacing stripped-back acoustics with a more equipped "band feel." ~ Thom Jurek