Marty Heddin (Self-released, 2016)

Garland, Texas native Marty Heddin is described on his website as a "true Texas troubadour with an old soul and a modern heart," but with the guidance of producer Keith Stegall, there's a lot more mainstream Nashville on his eponymous debut EP than Texas. Heddin's vocals are pleasant enough, but are unfortunately too often buried in the mix or over processed.

Heddin is a throwback in the sense that he does not share composer credits on any of the six tunes, relying instead on a crop of mostly Nashville songwriters. The strongest performances are on ballads such as "Game Changer" (written by Ken Johnson, Andi Zack, Casey Wood) and "A Little Less Lonely" (Willie Mack, Tony Ramey, Johnny Reid), which recall the work of Randy Travis and George Strait. "Make You Stay" (Randy Houser, Derek George, Brett Jones) starts off nicely and features Heddin's most passionate vocals, but the mix becomes progressively more muddled as the track develops.

It is uptempo tracks such as "Hammered,""Going Like It's Going" and the closing "Fine By Me" that are most adversely affected by over-production. Though on the whole the EP disappoints because of such production, there is some appeal here to fans of '90s era mainstream Nashville due to Heddin's strong vocals.