West Virginia songwriter and piano bard Brad Goodall established himself as a vivid storyteller with his 2022 debut Made In America, which boasted uproariously satirical character studies of sad, desperate men in the vein of Randy Newman and Warren Zevon. Where that album unfolded like a collection of biting short stories, his latest Hometown plays out like an autobiography. Across 9 audacious and personal songs, he trades humor for heart, sarcasm for earnestness, and solo-perfectionism for full-band collaboration. Out May 1st, 2026, this LP is joyful and reflective with tracks detailing love, marriage, grappling with where you’re from, and looking back at a youth spent in touring bands figuring it all out. It’s open and vulnerable music where Goodall is effortless, and finally, himself.  After the release of Made in America, Goodall went through some transformational shifts in his personal life. He took a leave from the Huntington, West Virginia indie rock band Ona, which he’d spent most of his twenties touring and recording (the band reunited in 2025 for a string of shows). He also got engaged and married to his longtime partner. These major changes meant that he needed to break from the formula he perfected on his first effort. “I was already ready to do something new, even before that LP had come out,” says Goodall. “The biggest principle I wanted to follow was a truth in the songs. They had to just come from actual me, not an avatar me.” Instead of hiding behind jokes and character-driven lyrics, he had to write about his life as authentically as possible.  Beyond a short stint in New York City, Goodall has spent his entire life in West Virginia. Like any place, he’s had his ups and downs there: heartbreaks, periods of boredom, and gratitude. It’s complicated, but it’s home. The first song he wrote for the album, “Hometown,” captures this sentiment with grace and self-awareness. He sings in the chorus, "You can run, you can hide, buy a one-way flight / For the cinematic touchdown / Pay your fees, break your lease, but you better make your peace / 'Cause it always comes back around / You’re nothing but your hometown."  It’s sparse with just Goodall’s voice and piano, but still immersive and evocative. It’s unlike anything he’s ever written before, but it highlights his perceptive lyrics and the softer side of his melodic sensibilities. A big question I had was, “Why am I still in West Virginia?” says Goodall. “This song became the seed for the rest of the album. It's the perfect umbrella to cover the rest of the tunes in.”  “Once 'Hometown' came to be, it became obvious that I needed to write from a personal place,” says Goodall. “The writing process was faster, more enjoyable, and less overthought than the last one. I didn’t have to use my imagination as much, and it became more of a simple extension of myself.” Goodall lives a mile away from the Ohio River and wrote “River Water” as another ode to home. “Run blue / You can leave it / It’ll be there when you need it,” he sings over smooth guitars and shuffling drums. Compared to Made In America, which Goodall wrote, performed, and tracked by himself, Hometown was a more collaborative recording process. He decamped to Nashville’s The Bomb Shelter with a band featuring drummer Griffin Goldsmith (Dawes), bassist Macey Taylor (Bright Eyes), and guitarist Zack Owens (Ona). “This was a premeditated reaction to making my first album entirely by myself to have these really talented people playing the parts that I roughly envisioned,” says Goodall. “I got so much inspiration from those people, and the album is much more alive because of them.”  So much of Hometown is ecstatic and meditative, song-length doses of growing up and realizing what matters. Goodall refers to the buoyant opener “Proximity” as “a love note that you stamp on the inside of a bathroom mirror for your girlfriend.” He explains, “ Learning about somebody deeply is going to come out in your writing, and that's what we were going through in my relationship.” Elsewhere, “We Made It” finds him reminiscing on his time touring with Ona. He sings, “An Appalachian version of Babylon  / A party that would come to an end / The families we built / The hangover guilt and so on.” It’s Goodall telling his bandmates that what they did mattered, was worth it, and making records with your buddies is an important way to survive your 20s.  Hometown is a document of Goodall coming to terms with where he’s from and coming into his own as a songwriter. “The vein that’s pumping everything through this record is Huntington, West Virginia, of all places,” says Goodall. “There was no inspirational drive across the country for me: It all came from my own front porch and my own city.”