Stephen Wilson Jr. readies his debut double album with a dual release. “Mighty Beast” and “All the Wars from Now On” jangle from his bones, two puzzle pieces that tease the musical adeptness Wilson possesses. His fingertips emit sparks, with his guitar the conduit through which he relays his deeply-probing tunes.

“Mighty Beast” rumbles with slithering darkness. A hymn doused in blood, the bluesy foot-stomper calls upon the self-described “lost season” of the pandemic. “It’s a story I tell myself to sleep / I’m a high-plains lone wolf counting sheep,” bellows Wilson. “They can steer me to the slaughter / And I’ll hold my head up high / As I’d rather be a mighty beast than whither up and dry…”

Conversely, “All the Wars from Now On” glimpses the world through the lens of Wilson’s grandfather and war veteran. “All the wars from now should be fought by old men / Who are old enough to know better now, knowing better than back then,” he sings in the chorus. Through its prickly instrumentation, Wilson unloads a two-ton emotional weight, blinding the listener with its intense honesty.

“The origin of the song came from watching a few war veterans at a diner in my hometown go about just like my grandfather once did one random morning,” Wilson says in a press statement about the latter song. “I couldn’t help but see him in their jovial conversations, and the thought hit me that the world would be a peaceful place if men like these were fighting all the wars. I knew he would see the honesty and humor in that scenario and enjoy the Norman Rockwell-ion approach to painting this song.”

Listen to both tracks below.

“Mighty Beast” and “All the Wars from Now On” sample a forthcoming double-decker record. søn of dad (co-produced by Wilson and Benjamin West) arrives everywhere September 15 on Big Loud Records. Earlier this year, Wilson made both his Grand Ole Opry and Stagecoach debuts, signaling his leap to superstardom.

“Writing and making this album has been very therapeutic for me to learn who I am and what my existence looks like after my father. Because life has to go on,” Wilson noted of the album. “I’m living my own life, but it’s like his death bookended what life he should have had onto mine and I’m carrying it around like a train car.”

Through the fall, Wilson continues a slew of tour dates with Midland, Joss Stone, and Larry Fleet.