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\n\tJohn Baumann<\/a> is in the feelings business, and he knows it. \u201cThis may sound political,\u201d Baumann tells Rolling Stone<\/em>, \u201cbut I really believe that the best currency is when people tell you a song has changed their life.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tSince releasing his first music 14 years ago, the Austin, Texas-based singer has been perfecting exactly how to make listeners feel something. Other artists have taken notice: His song \u201cGulf Moon\u201d was cut by Kenny Chesney for 2018\u2019s Songs for the Saints<\/a> <\/em>and he\u2019s become a favorite co-writer of Randy Rogers. Baumann is also part of a bona fide Texas music supergroup, the Panhandlers<\/a>, alongside Flatland Cavalry\u2019s Cleto Cordero, Josh Abbott, and William Clark Green<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\tNow, on Guy on a Rock<\/em>, Baumann\u2019s album released last fall, he\u2019s flipping the script and trying to make himself<\/em> feel something. Over 11 tracks, he looks at personal moments in his life, from celebratory milestones to deep losses, and realizes they\u2019re all just grains of sand on a beach.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI think about that Carl Sagan quote, \u2018We\u2019re all here on a pale blue dot.\u2019 That felt like the thesis or the through-line,\u201d Baumann says of the album.<\/p>\n \n\tGuy on a Rock<\/em> came together slowly and economically. Baumann recorded it in fits and starts over the course of nine months starting in October 2024, with Brian Douglas Phillips producing. That bulk of time allowed Baumann to push himself creatively and labor over each track. In fact, most of the songs were written after he started recording, and some were inspired by experiences he only had that year.<\/p>\n