Handsome and the Humbles - Draw Some Blood (2025) Hi-Res

We all have that one thing we beat ourselves up about. Missed opportunity, a big botch on the job, or simply saying something outlandishly stupid. Stuff like that usually won’t produce a half-decent song, let alone a good album. But a busted-up marriage? That’s something that will cause you to question just about everything. And, if you’re a songwriter – a good one, like Joshua Mikhael Smith – those questions become songs. The Handsome and the Humbles frontman found himself in that start-over spot a few years back, and the band’s latest album, Draw Some Blood, has Smith still reckoning with the damage while also finding a way forward.

Before moving on, though, there’s always that divvying up possessions and dishing out blame. Draw Some Blood’s first track, the pensive “Good Enough,” begins with the disquieting image of packing records and pictures, plus a premonition of the relationship’s demise – “I’ve written enough sad songs/I knew it wouldn’t be too long/’Fore a real life broken heart shined through.” The blame part, though, falls squarely on Smith’s shoulders, at least as he tells it – “I laid down on that throttle/Picked up the bottle/Let’s find out just how fast this thing will go.” The album’s lead single, “St. Therese,” pushes the pedal further down. The rocker of a road song does what many of us do in this situation – paint a mental picture of a seemingly locked-in future that now will never happen: “I thought of all that would never be/All the places that I’d never see/They felt like home.” A home, as it turns out, that’s now vanished.

Smith’s central partner in the band – the lead “Humble,” if you will – is Joshua Hutson, and he provides the rock to Smith’s rue. The guitar solo in “Good Enough,” the shimmery 80s keys in “Bonneville” and the overall jangle of “Foolish Promises” are standout moments. Guest Humble Heidi Gilson’s backing vocals on “St. Therese” provide a lovely counter to Smith’s croon, and Cecilia Blair Wright’s cello on “Texarkana” lends additional ache to Smith’s touring musician loneliness – “You were singing in the kitchen/I was playing songs 900 miles away.” But Draw Some Blood rests on Smith’s efforts to make up for those promises not kept. The album’s last track, “Just One More,” is a deep breath before doing just that. Whether it’s relocating, going back to school, or just adjusting his own mindset – “No more singing all these sad, sad songs/I’ll write a new one when I’m free” – Smith is promising, most importantly to himself, to do the hardest thing, post break-up: stop blaming and start living again.

Song I Can’t wait to Hear Live: “St. Therese” – this has been on my playlist since release. Both road-weary and riffy, it’s a punchy look at a life that will now never be.

Draw Some Blood was recorded and mixed by Joshua Hutson, Joshua Mikhael Smith and Kris “Tugboat” Killingsworth. All songs written by Smith and composed by Smith and Hutson. Handsome and the Humbles is Smith (vocals, guitar, bass, drums) and Hutson (guitar, backing vocals, keys, drums). Additional musicians include Killingsworth (drums), Heidi Gilson (acoustic guitar, backing vocals), Robert Richards (bass), Cecilia Blair Wright (cello) and Zack Miles (backing vocals).