Erik Vincent Huey is an Americana singer-songwriter whose second full-length solo LP—Fort Defiance—will be released on February 13, 2026.

Fort Defiance was produced by “The Godfather of Americana” Eric “Roscoe” Ambel, the legendary Rock ‘n’ Roll guitarist (Joan Jett, Del-Lords, Steve Earle & The Dukes) and producer (Bottle Rockets, Jimbo Mathus, Yayhoos, Sarah Borges). It features guest vocal appearances by Tommy Stinson (The Replacements, Guns & Roses), Sarah Borges, and musical backing Baltimore power pop phenoms Starbelly, who toured the US and internationally with Erik after his last album.

Fort Defiance was recorded at Ambel’s Cowboy Technical Services in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and is the follow up to 2023’s critically acclaimed solo debut Appalachian Gothic, which garnered him comparisons to Woody Guthrie (Folk & Tumble), Bruce Springsteen, and Dave Alvin  (Alternate Root). The LP was hailed by Americana UK as “the Appalachian Tommy,” garnering a 4.5 / 5 star review by American Songwriter, who called the album a “mesmerizing, unforgettable major work.”

The son of four generations of coal miners, Erik grew up along the banks of the Monongahela River in West Virginia and Western Pennsylvania, and recently relocated to Austin from Washington, DC. He came of age on The Clash, X and the Sex Pistols, but never truly escaped his Appalachian roots. From the cowpunk on-ramp of The Blasters, The Beat Farmers, Jason & the Scorchers, and Dwight Yoakam, he wandered upstream along the Hillbilly Highway until he rediscovered Johnny Cash and George Jones—artists he’d listened to as a kid in the cab of his Uncle Jack’s 18-wheeler.

Erik (under the nom de plume Cletus McCoy) is the longtime frontman of The Surreal McCoys a cowpunk “hipster doofus band” (as Mojo Nixon dubbed them) with two albums under their belt that—bolstered by airplay of the mashup single “Whole Lotta Folsom” on SiriusXM’s Outlaw Country—enjoys 50K monthly listeners and has collected over 3.5 million spins on Spotify.

In addition to Eric Ambel, Huey is backed on Fort Defiance by Starbelly’s Bryan Ewald on guitar and organ, Cliff Hillis on guitar, Dennis Schocket on bass, and Greg Schroeder on drums. Additional musicians include bassist Keith Christopher (Lynyrd Skynyrd), guitarist Tim Smith (The Surreal McCoys), and drummer Phil Cimino.