Originally from Kentucky and now a hard-and-fast Oklahoman, John Moreland sounds as though he's lived 100 lifetimes (even though this year he'll be celebrating his 30th birthday).

His plaintive music seeps with years of battle-scarred experiences built on top of incomparable alt-country rock and roll; that craft is on full display throughout his third studio album, High on Tulsa Heat, scheduled for release on April 21 via Thirty Tigers. Today (March 30), Diffuser is ecstatic to give you a taste of what to expect with the record's second track, "Heart's Too Heavy" -- check it out in the audio player below.

Kicking things off with the frighteningly incisive lyrics, "Well these angels in my eardrums / They can't tell bad from good / I lived inside these melodies just to make sure I still could," Moreland wastes no time with empty or unnecessary words.

"'Heart's Too Heavy' is a song about figuring out why you feel like s--- all the time," Moreland succinctly explains. "It was the first song we recorded for the album. It came together pretty quickly -- almost everything on it was a first take. We found out Jesse Aycock was in town that day, so we got him to come over and play steel."

Moreland's ability to cut through the sheer bull of this world is unduplicated, and "Heart's Too Heavy" is just one of many shining examples of that prowess.

As we anxiously await to get our hands on High on Tulsa Heat, make sure to catch Moreland's live show when he rolls through your area. He's on the road during the spring, including two gigs in Nashville on April 15 and a couple of shows at New York City's iconic Rockwood Music Hall in June. You can find his full tour itinerary here and pre-order his new LP at this location.

More From Diffuser.fm