Robert Ellis

Tuneful little folky country music.  Very spare arrangements, most of this is quiet with some pretty good storytelling lyrics.  He's got two albums available on Spotify.  The first, Photographs is pretty straight-forward folk country.  Pretty voice, lightly used over acoustic guitar and a little bit of slide. 

Live version from some sort of Dickie promotional thing.  Poignant song about being separated from your best friend and them growing up and changing.  Total mix tape classic to send to all your frat bros 25 years later, yo!  Bros foreva!
The second album, The Lights from the Chemical Plant (love that title) is a little more filled out.  Feels darker, a little less folkie, but it is hard to categorize the whole album.  Some makes me think of Jamey Johnson, while other sounds like a Depeche Mode torch song sung by a Texan.  The title song from that album is a really good story/imagery song:

Steady as the Rising Sun is some James Taylor/Wilco Sky Blue Sky stuff:

The more I listen to this disc the more I want to compare it to Sky Blue Sky.  But then he'll throw a bluegrass curveball down and make it hard to stick this thing into a box.  Going to see him depends on the schedule.  But if he played an afternoon slot like Dawes last year, it would be pretty nice chillin' in the sun music.  I'm going to keep listening to him anyway - great music for the office.