Colby T. Helms Gives a Voice to the Ones Who Don't Always Get Heard

Colby T. Helms has never seemed particularly interested in writing about perfect people. His songs belong to the outsiders, the workers, the wanderers and the ones carrying more than they let on.

On his new single “Young and Dumb,” the young Virginian songwriter steps inside one of the hardest stories of all — addiction, and the distorted reality of someone beginning to understand the damage left behind.

Raised in the Blue Ridge foothills of Southwest Virginia, Colby T. Helms comes from a part of America where stories have been passed from one generation to the next through songs, front porches and kitchen tables. Still in his early twenties, he's taking that tradition somewhere of his own, writing about the people and places around him without trying to polish away the rough edges.
His new single “Young and Dumb” is perhaps one of his most confronting examples yet.

Rather than looking at substance abuse from the outside, Helms writes from the perspective of someone caught inside it — a narrator slowly recognising what his choices have cost while still finding ways to justify them. “If you are struggling with substance abuse or have been affected by a loved one's substance abuse, this song will hit close to home,” Helms says. “‘Young and Dumb’ is told from the perspective of an addict coming to terms with his life choices and shortcomings. Through his eyes, you can see how addiction can warp someone's mind and distort their sense of reality.”

That perspective is important. Helms isn't interested in turning his character into a villain or offering an easy resolution. Instead, he explores the uncomfortable territory between knowing something is wrong and actually being able to change it — the denial, isolation and damaged relationships that can gather along the way. It's an approach that runs throughout his forthcoming second album, One for the Losers, arriving October 23 through Photo Finish Records.

If Helms' debut largely told his own story, One for the Losers widens the frame. Across twelve songs, he turns his attention towards people whose lives don't necessarily make the headlines: struggling friends, fallen mentors, immigrants, moonshiners and working-class Virginians trying to find their place in a world changing around them. The title itself tells you plenty about where Helms' sympathies lie.

The album's title track was inspired by a childhood friend whose struggle with alcohol ended in tragedy, while “Young and Dumb” and “Deadhead on the Weekend” look at addiction and self-destruction from different angles. “Armed and Dangerous” follows the story of a man who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border as a child searching for a better life, while “Ballad of the Bondurant Boys” reaches into Virginia's moonshine history to explore power, injustice and perseverance.

Together, the songs begin to resemble a collection of small-town portraits — stories about people trying to survive circumstances that aren't always entirely of their own making. It's old territory for roots music, but that's partly the point. The Appalachian tradition Helms comes from has always found room for songs about hard lives, bad decisions, broken hearts, family, work, whiskey and survival. He's not trying to reinvent that tradition so much as keep the conversation moving, bringing the people and sounds of Southwest Virginia into songs written for another generation.

And despite his age, there's an old soul quality to the way Helms approaches storytelling. He seems less concerned with placing himself at the centre of every song than with understanding the characters who inhabit them. Sometimes they're complicated. Sometimes they make terrible decisions. Sometimes there isn't a happy ending.

But they're worth writing about. With One for the Losers, Helms appears to be making a record for exactly those people — the ones who stumbled, the ones who got left behind and the ones still trying to find their way home.

For now, he's taking those songs out on the road, with a run of American headline dates through October and November before making his Mountain Stage debut in Charleston, West Virginia, on December 6.

Colby T. Helms — Tour Dates
October 8 — Analog at Hutton Hotel, Nashville, TN
October 9 — The Woodshop Listening Room, Chattanooga, TN
October 14 — Tin Pan, Richmond, VA
October 15 — Petra's Bar, Charlotte, NC
October 16 — Flat Iron, Greensboro, NC
October 17 — The Rex Theater, Galax, VA
October 22 — The Gem Music Hall, Spring City, PA
October 23 — Bright Box Theater, Winchester, VA
October 24 — The State Theatre (The Attic), State College, PA
October 25 — Waterfront Hall, Wheeling, WV
November 4 — The Encore, Morgantown, WV
November 5 — Club Cafe, Pittsburgh, PA
November 6 — Loft 129, Cumberland, MD
November 8 — Wandering Hills Music Festival, Coeburn, VA
November 9 — WoodSongs at Scottish Rite Concert Hall, Lexington, KY
December 6 — Mountain Stage, Charleston, WV