Dillon Warnek

With the seal of approval of Nashville’s coolest couple Margo Price and Jeremy Ivey, Dillon Warnek has emerged as one of Music City’s most skillful new songwriters, writing with all the verve and attitude of Warren Zevon. Rolling Stone raved that his debut album Now That It’s All Over was full of “wry character studies about con artists and dead men.” That’s true: Warnek — a construction worker by day, piano balladeer at night — revels in such tales. He immerses himself in reckless evenings of spending other people’s money, in hazy mornings waking up in a strange woman’s trailer, and in fantasies about keeling over with far too many secrets to reveal. Onstage, Warnek holds court at his keyboard, mixing wry anecdotes in with his subversive lyricism. Some say there are no good piano men like Randy Newman anymore. But they just haven’t seen Dillon Warnek.