Quality Americana

By HalleyAnna Finlay

Steve Poltz estimates he plays about 180 shows a year. (That is almost 4 nights every week, for the math-impaired.) His longest set was about eight hours, back when he was playing classical guitar at two different Mexican restaurants in San Diego. He tells the story about one night while he was finger-picking guitar in the corner of the restaurant, he caught the eye of a waitress  – and later that night lost his left shoe while escaping from her motorcycle boyfriend through her bedroom window.

A whole album named for that event was released in 1998. I was 12 years old and I definitely owned that CD. I’ve known Steve since I was just getting into researching songwriters. I was a kid, I heard Jewel on the radio, got a blue guitar for Christmas, and learned about songwriters like Steve Poltz. A punk band leader (The Rugburns) gone folk singer, with a hit song on the radio, doing the thing many of us aspire to do before “Americana Music” was created as a new genre and whole thing. If you want the rest of the story on Steve’s left shoe, you can check him out tonight – May 21 at The 04 Center in Austin, Texas at 8:00, or tomorrow at the Mucky Duck in Houston.

I initially reached out to Poltz on MySpace and asked him if he would want to play at my dad’s listening room/music venue, Cheatham Street Warehouse in San Marcos, Texas. I knew I had to meet the guy who helped Jewel write her biggest hit, “You Were Meant For Me.” 

I cannot count how many times I’ve seen him since that first Cheatham Street show, but he really made me feel seen when I was just getting started. I was a sponge growing up around songwriters, and Steve was one of a couple of my heroes who started inviting me on stage to sing with him at shows! He would let me sing a whole verse and all the harmonies on “Silver Lining,” and later called me up for hits like “Hand Job on a Church Bus,” and “I Want All My Friends to Be Happy.”

Through the years, we crossed paths at conferences like SXSW and Folk Alliance and I started seeing him more and more around my Oklahoma hang outs. We had a few meet-ups at airports, and last year I attended the Steve Poltz Song Factory in Big Indian, New York. 

Most recently, I saw Steve Poltz play Fulton Music Hall in the mountains north of Santa Cruz last February. Steve was promoting his brand new record, JoyRide on that Saturday night at Felton Music Hall. I got there and saw some friends that I know through fan groups on social media. In true Steve Polt spirit, we greeted each other as family – sharing big hugs and starting the line. It’s a tradition. The hardcore fans get to shows hours before doors open. That night I wore a Todd Snider hoodie and recognized some like-minded people who felt like hometown friends right away.

The setting was a Mexican restaurant-turned-listening room, chairs crowded into the venue with front row knees against the stage. Steve and Sharon pulled up to the front door in a Jeep Wagoneer. Steve was driving. He jumped out and told me, “I’ll see you inside.”

Singing along and being a fan-girl in the crowd, I didn’t realize that later he would pull me on stage to perform an original song of my own. He handed me his guitar, which was EQed for soft finger picking. I adjusted my playing style and performed “Denim Queen,” a newish song that he inspired me to write at his songwriting camp last summer. 

“The Son of God,” from his new album JoyRide (2026) is a talking song – it’s a Christian song, and it’s a unique Steve Poltz original duet between himself and Jesus. If you are a big fan of John Prine’s “Jesus, the Missing Years,” you might like this one too. It’s a conversation between Poltz playing the part of Jesus from Heaven on the phone with wide-eyed Steve down on earth. Heaven is getting expensive with streaming subscriptions, cost of lumber and tariffs, Jesus is pressured by his dad to sell sell sell these encyclopedias, and Poltzy has some questions. Jesus explains that Bob Dylan’s trip to heaven or hell depends on his next album, that Poltz will need a “get into heaven free” card, given his history. Steve ends up with a set of the encyclopedias before the song is over.  

Steve travels more than half of the year playing shows in different countries and across the US, I wonder where he is storing his 22-volume set. Did Jesus send hard copies, or will they be waiting in The Promise Land for Steve’s arrival? When I realized it reminded me of a great John Prine song, I wanted to center my story around this piece. But let’s run through a few more grand slam hit songs before I go. 

He started with “Love a Little Bigger” that night in Felton. It’s a co-write with Vince Herman from Leftover Salmon. A murder song that can make you laugh. His set also included a few co-writes with Jim Lauderdale, “At It Again,” and “Fixin Up,” based on former coach of his favorite baseball team, The San Diego Padres, Tim Flannery.

Tom Skinner showed me you’re only a real songwriter if you’ve got a baseball song. Lauderdale and Poltz got together, initiated some co-writing “foreplay,” and wrote “Fixin Up” based on a Facebook message Steve left after Flannery’s surgery. I asked Steve recently about his songwriting process.

“It’s always different,” Poltz said. “I will strum the guitar aimlessly, finger pick it, and I might be in a weird tuning, or maybe I’m in standard tuning, and then I’ll aimlessly come up with some sort of melody when I’m not trying.”

He then listens back on his voice memos while going over lyrics.

“I can walk around and sing something to it if I’m listening to it,” Poltz said, “or words might start coming out. And then in my notes section on my phone I just start typing in all these words. I have a word graveyard on my phone too with lines that never got used and I might go to that, and then next thing I know this song starts becoming a song. 

It may take me a while to really get it down and I’ll sit and just play it for days. I have to really know it, and then when I first play it on stage I’ll still screw it up because I’m thinking the audience is now hearing no matter how good I think I have it.” 

Steve said he lets the ideas take him to the song.

“Don’t spook the horse when the horse is coming up with something,” Poltz said. “You don’t want to spook the muse because it might lead to something else, and he’s really a wise sage as well when it comes to that.” 

My favorite new laugh out loud tune is “Brand New Liver,” written with Grammy-award winning super-artist, Gary Nicholson. Speaking of livers, Steve’s shows might make you feel like you’re on drugs, but you’ll survive just fine. He has a way of pulling you into that space through the songs, the stories, and the sheer force of personality that comes across from the stage. See for yourself tonight at the 04 Center in Austin, or tomorrow night in Houston at The Mucky Duck.