Jason Lenyer Buchanan finds new weight at the piano on 'Lazarus'

There's this beautiful sense of transition running through 'Lazarus'. Jason Lenyer Buchanan has changed cities, changed his primary instrument and, in the process, opened up a different emotional space in his songwriting.

The three-song EP is his first written around piano rather than guitar, and that shift immediately feels significant. Piano and Fender Rhodes give the songs a broader, more reflective frame, while Hammond organ, bass, drums and carefully placed guitar bring warmth without crowding the writing.

Recorded live at Nashville’s Owl Studio in just a handful of takes, the performances retain the tiny movements and natural dynamics that often disappear once songs are polished too aggressively. Scott Mulvahill’s bass, Craig Dockery’s organ and Josh Seurkamp’s drums give him a wonderfully responsive foundation, while Nate Leath’s fiddle on ‘Somewhere in Between’ adds another expressive voice to the room.

That opening track is especially affecting, following a woman through ambition, dislocation and eventually a return to something more grounded. He lets the story unfold patiently, trusting the details to bring the emotion to the surface.

While the title-track takes a more confrontational route. Written amid his move from Wyoming to Oregon, ‘Lazarus’ reflects his anger at what he saw as the failure of sections of the church to stand alongside immigrants while becoming entangled with politics. It's a sharper piece of writing, but the live arrangement keeps the song rooted in humanity as it plays.

Then comes ‘This Old Truck’, and suddenly the entire EP feels intensely personal. Written about the truck he rebuilt with his late father and still drives, the song finds enormous emotional power in ordinary physical details.

Jason Lenyer Buchanan may have moved away from the guitar as his starting point, but he hasn't abandoned the qualities that make his writing compelling. If anything, the piano has given those stories more space to deepen.

Warm, unvarnished and deeply lived-in, 'Lazarus' feels like the beginning of a major new chapter for him.