Tyler Halverson knows who he is, and sometimes he doesn’t like it. But all of the mistakes he’s made and hearts he’s broken have led him to In Defense of Drinking, his stone-cold honest country album that takes a stark look at a life lived on the road.

“It’s been a life spent falling in and out of love and finding something to write about, at the expense of your heart and somebody’s else’s,” Halverson says. “I’m not proud of the actions that that boy took to inspire these songs. But I’m very proud of how they turned out. The Nashville scene today is all so pretty and polished, and some artists try to come out looking a certain way, but how about you just show yourself exactly how you are, the good and bad?”

Growing up in the tiny town of Canton, South Dakota, Halverson has never been afraid to be himself. Before he answered the call of the road, playing bars and rodeo beer gardens, he spent as much time on his skateboard as he did showing cattle at livestock shows. “I grew up in sale barns and skate parks,” he says, and those two disparate worlds inform the music he makes. There’s a decidedly alt-country edge to the songs on In Defense of Drinking, including the thumping, unrepentant single “More Hearts Than Horses.”