Kashus Culpepper hasn’t been in the music game long, but the Alabama-born singer-songwriter has already made a considerable impact with his rugged, soulful voice and inventive, genre-defying songwriting. A Navy veteran, Culpepper first picked up a guitar while deployed in 2020, learning cover songs before transitioning to writing his own. This debut album from Culpepper is something of a capstone on his first half decade as a musician, introducing the singer-songwriter as an artist with a fully realized vision and unshakable sense of self. Highlights include “Mean to Me,” an early fan favorite that is heavy on wordplay and infused with a loose grit, and closer “Cherry Rose,” a heartfelt Mikky Ekko co-write that’s also one of Culpepper’s biggest hits thus far. Culpepper has a couple of friends join him on Act I, too, with blues virtuoso Marcus King guesting on the groovy rocker “Southern Man” and multi-hyphenate Sierra Ferrell on “Broken Wing Bird,” a rootsy number that showcases Culpepper’s versatility.