Dylan LeBlanc has arrived three months too early. The listener, at least this one, isn’t ready yet for the warm, rich layers of Paupers Field. Compare it to receiving a beautiful handmade blanket in the middle of summer.

But hold on to it, I will. Wait for it to unfold come winter’s cold. Paupers Field comforts and stirs with its mood and instrumentation, always within the confines of the cozy warmth that LeBlanc so carefully exudes. The Louisiana native weaves these organic textures together honestly, a young man with an old country soul. His father was a session player in the swampy south of Muscle Shoals, Alabama and LeBlanc’s enculturation was steeped in the music of his father.

A deep, mournful mood pervades much of Paupers Field, whether it’s the loss of love on ‘If The Creek Don’t Rise’ or pining for a lover on ‘Ain’t Too Good At Losing.’ The former is the album’s highlight, a minimally moving ballad that features Emmylou Harris on backing vocals. Yet it’s heartbreaking lines like “You run from me like I’m the edge of death. Honey, please stop running and catch your breath” that move the most. LeBlanc’s voice seems a smoothed out Ray LaMontagne here although comparisons change throughout Paupers Field.

A honky tonk groove enters the album early on ‘If Time Was For Wasting’ with the pedal steel shifting its accent to accompany the lighter mood. The feeling comes back every now and then (‘Changing of the Seasons’), but LeBlanc’s mood generally gravitates back toward the morose. By the time ‘Coyote Creek’ and ‘No Kind of Forgiveness’ close things out, you’re encompassed once again in the same warm blanket of album opener, ‘One.’

Paupers Field belies the age of its creator (LeBlanc is only 20, meaning many songs were penned in his teenage years). Somehow the talented songwriter has gifted the world with a stunning, somber debut that should provide an ideal wintry listen.