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Today, we’re going to delve into the well-traveled, curious US-based artist and singer-songwriter Alex Amen. The 26-year-old is well-traveled within the US, having been born and raised in Texas, then he left for California at age 18 to study filmmaking, dropping out after a semester to live on the “Dittman Family Commune” in Southern California, which had ties to the mid-60s counterculture movements, then to according to a press release for his site bio, “It was here that he formed his first band American Slang in 2017. The band broke up shortly after, resulting in Alex’s move from Southern California to an island in the Puget Sound off Washington State. The next three years, he spent in relative isolation, taking up various interests in mycology, mountaineering, poetry, and wooden boat building. As years passed, Alex felt the increasing need to return to California to pursue music. In January of 2023, he self-produced his first EP, The Zorthian Tapes (released June 2025) in a self-built studio at the historic Zorthian Ranch in Altadena, California.” And since spending time in NYC.
The press release for his debut album, Sun of Amen, which is out via the fabulous ATO Records on Friday, June 12th, for your listening pleasure, went into more detail about Amen’s fascinating past and present, “As a kid growing up on the Gulf Coast, music and nature first became entangled in Alex’s earliest years during family road trips to Colorado, thanks to his parents’ tradition of putting on John Denver’s Greatest Hits right when the Rockies came into view. ‘The feeling of that music playing as we headed toward the mountains was very impactful for me,’ he says. ‘It was like a whole new world opened up, and I realized life had more to offer than pop radio. It showed me emotions I didn’t know I had.’ After taking up piano at four (and studying with the same Houston-based jazz pianist through the end of high school), Alex started playing guitar in mid-adolescence after discovering the likes of Nirvana and Neil Young. Although he later enrolled in film school in California with the intention of making documentaries about rock climbing (one of his lifelong passions), he dropped out after one semester to focus on music full-time. Within weeks, he’d moved into a historic commune in Anaheim where he soon started his first band, a psychedelic folk-rock outfit named American Slang. ‘The commune was a crazy place to live—there were hippies and punks and skaters, all in this beautiful house that used to be on six acres of strawberry fields, but now it’s surrounded by strip malls,’ says Alex. ‘The house was owned by a professor who’d bought it in the mid-’60s and still lived there with his family, so it had this fascinating history with the anti-war movement and renowned civil-rights/psychedelic activists from that time. We’d have these big communal meals every day and debate art and God and food and politics. It was a pretty amazing place to live for a while.’”
The press release continues, “After eight months at the commune—and a brief stint living in a trailer on the property of a famed Hollywood composer—Alex set off for Vashon, an island in Washington’s Puget Sound, where he moved into his then-girlfriend’s family home in the early days of Covid. ‘My girlfriend was working a very stressful job and dealing with the loss of a family member, and I ended up spending most of my time alone,’ he says. ‘I decided to go to music school with all my spare time during Covid and became almost like a monastic musician, to the point where I was practicing guitar up to 12 hours some days.’ Determined to gain greater mastery over his playing, he found a guiding light in the world of traditional American and roots music. ‘I started taking a ferry to bluegrass jams and studying all these musicians who had amazing technical prowess—it took me back to the awe I’d felt watching my piano teacher as a kid, and made me want to have the same kind of freedom with my instrument,’ says Alex. ‘After three and a half years, I was a much different player than when I first got to the island.’
Moving more into the past few years, the press release states, “Just before leaving Vashon (where his pursuits also included mountaineering and boat building), Alex headed down to Zorthian Ranch (an artist colony in Altadena, California) and cut his first batch of solo recordings—a self-produced seven-song project titled The Zorthian Tapes. After moving into an Altadena home with the musicians who’d accompanied him for those sessions, he began sharing songs from the EP in late 2024 and quickly caught the attention of industry insiders, soon inking a publishing deal with Rick Rubin’s American Songs. While navigating a fast-growing live schedule (including performing alongside the likes of Lucinda Williams and Taj Mahal at the 2025 Luck Reunion on Willie Nelson’s ranch), Alex returned to the studio and recorded Sun of Amen, completing the album prior to signing with ATO Records in early 2026.”
Looking into the Sun of Amen process, the album was produced by Amen and engineered by Jonny Bell (Cage The Elephant, Chiccano Batman), and was partly recorded at the legendary Valentine Recording Studios in L.A. Via the album’s press release, Amen notes, “It could be easy to fall into the trap of trying to make something intentionally sound rough because you want it to feel old, but if you listen to a record like Blue by Joni Mitchell, it’s so unbelievably modern and hi-fi. With this album, we were meticulous about creating something high-quality while recording in a more traditional way, which has its own challenges—older gear is temperamental, so sometimes we’d have to break for three hours because the tape machine caught on fire.” After listening myself, I think they achieved what they set out to do. It’s a gorgeous-sounding record that fans of music from multiple decades will greatly enjoy.
Amen leaves us with some parting thoughts: “I think it’s important for everyone to have a physical connection with nature, partly because it creates more of a desire to make sure we’re not destroying the planet, but it’s also good for humans on every basic level to move and be outside. The better you take care of your body and the world and the people around you, the greater amount of good life gives back to you. It’s the same thing with music—I think I’ve been very blessed in the sense that music has always been something I’ve done because I love it; it’s never felt forced to me. I really just love the way it feels to play music, and I’ve found the more you chase it and live with an open heart, the more life brings you songs.” Sentiment that SWT fully supports and know that our beloved readers believe in as well.
And now for some hype for both your ears and eyes for this new album via Alex Amen’s YouTube channel:
The retro feel video look within the gorgeous natural backdrops for the song, “Diamonds”:
(All credits and rights to Alex Amen)
The audio for the lush song “California Blues”:
(All credits and rights to Alex Amen)
Some gorgeous cityscape shots of NYC are featured while traversing on a bicycle within the video for the song “Changes”:
(All credits and rights to Alex Amen)
Overall, Sun of Amen is a gorgeous full-length debut. A product of years in the making, the result is a debut that bests what some produce in their career. What they strive for, Amen has achieved. An excellent album. The praise is not meant to go on thick or to stoke an ego; rather, it is a statement of fact that most listeners will find this album to their liking. Take a listen for yourself, and you’ll fall in love with the arrangements, the lush melodies and harmonies, the storytelling, the songwriting, and Amen’s vocal tone and vocal delivery. I think some listeners will love it fully from the first listen, ranking the album among their favorites of this year. Others may need a few listens for the songs to make an impact on them. Fans of 60s and 70s music, especially US pop and folk, will be transported to decades past with blissful smiles and warm hearts. There’s truly a lot to like and love. Often, the arrangements on this album are minimal instrumentation, such as guitar chords, but the additions of pedal steel (“Cabin by the Sea” and “Her Spirit Wanders” and “California Blues”), banjo (“Please Don’t Tell Me You Love Me”), piano (“Memories of You” and “Lonely People”), strings (“April”) and percussive blocks or claps (“Her Spirit Wanders” and “Changes”) are perfectly done. Adding much depth to their respective songs’ melodies. All allow plenty of room and add an excellent foundation for Amen’s vocals to not only shine but thrive. Earworms incoming.
Sun of Amen gets 4.5 out of 5 Scum Drops from me relative to all 2026 new releases based on our Scum Drops rating scale. It’s a beautiful record from start to finish. Worth adding to your playlists, for repeated listens. Maybe not adventure/traveling, but take a listen for yourself and you’ll know what to call the playlist of this album’s songs. Here’s to hoping we get more music from Amen in the future and more live performances. This is definitely worth adding to your collection on the formats of your choosing. Ensure that one of them is on vinyl. So you can listen to the wonderfulness of this album in your dwelling. Drop a comment on one of our socials to thank me at a later date.
I’ll always advocate that you take the time to listen to every album in its entirety. The listening process with Sun of Amen will take just under 40 minutes from start to finish. A mere 80 minutes if you listen back-to-back. Along the way, you’ll discover your own favorite songs without the influence or bias of others. After several listens, I found the songs highlighted in green below to be my favorites on this album.
The tracklist for Sun of Amen (song length)
- Diamonds (4:08)
- Cabin By The Sea (3:22)
- Please Don’t Tell Me You Love Me (2:51)
- Peaches (2:47)
- Her Spirit Wanders (4:16)
- Memories of You (4:18)
- California Blues (4:18)
- Changes (3:50)
- April (3:24)
- Lonely People (5:44)
Total runtime: 39:42
For more info about him, his music, check out Alex Amen’s site and his Linktree. Check out his socials: Instagram, and stream his music on Spotify, Apple Music, and his YouTube channel.
Thank you for reading and supporting good music.
Until next time,
Alex M. Theel
Scummy Water Tower Productions co-founder, reviewer, business manager, and editor. Thank you for visiting this site, scummywatertower.com, and YouTube for Water Tower Sessions and SWT Interviews. And all of our socials.
Questions, feedback, or more? Contact me: alex@scummywatertower.com
