COLBY T. HELMS & THE VIRGINIA CREEPERS

Every town has them.

The underdogs. The people who never quite fit in. The ones who are misunderstood. The ones who strive, stumble, and keep going anyway.

With his second album, One for the Losers, Colby T. Helms tells their stories.

Raised in the Blue Ridge foothills of Southwest Virginia, Helms launched his career as a teenager, writing raw and ragged songs that drew from the people, places, stories, and struggles that shaped him. If his debut album chronicled his own experience, then One for the Losers widens the frame by looking outward. Across a dozen tracks, Helms shines a light on the overlooked and misunderstood characters who've crossed his path, from troubled friends and fallen mentors to moonshiners, immigrants, and working-class Virginians trying to survive in a world that threatens to leave them behind.

"This is a record for people who don’t feel like they have a voice," he says, speaking with a southern drawl colored not only by his Appalachian roots, but by the years he's spent singing at folk festivals, fiddlers' conventions, campgrounds, and dive bars, too. "I wrote my first album while I was still in high school, then I spent a few years on the road, playing those songs every night. One for the Losers delves into what it's like to be a road musician, as well as the characters and challenges you encounter along the way — and some of the ones waiting for you back home, too."

Country. Bluegrass. Folk. Helms' interpretation of American mountain music bears the fingerprints of them all. Largely recorded in Nashville with producer David "Ferg" Ferguson, the album is as diverse as its influences, balancing electric full-band performances with intimate, stripped-back recordings that place Helms' storytelling front and center. For Helms, that balance feels like an extension of a childhood spent on the borderlines, embracing the grey areas between social groups.

"In high school, you were either an artistic kid who did choir and theater, or you were a redneck in FFA," he remembers. "I did it all. I never fit into any one category, and I think my music is the same way. I play multiple instruments. I play multiple genres. I've got more than a few sides of music in me."

That diversity springs to life on the album's title track, which was inspired by a childhood friend whose struggles with alcohol ended in tragedy. Rather than offering easy answers, Helms uses the song to wrestle with grief, survivor's guilt, and resilience. "Young and Dumb" examines addiction through the eyes of someone losing a battle with it. "Deadhead on the Weekend" tells the true story a troubled former boss whose self-destruction ultimately cost him his job, while acknowledging the lessons he still left behind.

Elsewhere, Helms broadens the album's perspective. "Armed and Dangerous" tells the story of his girlfriend's father, who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border as a child and survived hardships that forced him into a life few Americans could imagine. Built around cinematic imagery and rhythms inspired by Mexican music, the song offers a perspective rarely heard in contemporary country songwriting. Then there's "Ballad of the Bondurant Boys," an epic acoustic narrative inspired by Franklin County's infamous moonshine era. Like many of Helms' best songs, it blurs the line between history lesson and folk tale, preserving a piece of regional culture while emphasizing more universal themes like power, injustice, and survival.

You can take Helms out of Virginia, but you can't take Virginia out of Helms. His songwriting incorporates waltzes, ballads, and old-school rhythms that once formed the backbone of Appalachian dances but have become rare in modern roots music. Songs like "Fool's Gold," "Voices Shot," and "Ballad of the Bondurant Boys" pay tribute to those traditions, while tracks like "Welcome to the Freak Show" serve as a mission statement, reminding us that regardless of background, geography, or circumstance, everyone deserves a seat at the table. "Backwoods or suburbs, you know we are all just the same," he sings, "'cause no matter where you come from, we all got red blood and it’s coursing through all of our veins."

That idea may be the thread connecting every song on One For the Losers. Whether he's singing about a struggling musician, a moonshiner, a man crossing the desert in search of a better life, or a friend lost too soon, Helms approaches each story with compassion. He isn't interested in dividing people into winners and losers. He's more interested in understanding them…and maybe drawing a few connections between them, too.

For Helms, that responsibility carries extra weight because of where he comes from. Appalachia is one of the most misunderstood regions in America, often flattened into stereotypes that ignore its complexity and creativity. As a proud resident of the area, he hopes to offer a fuller picture. "Appalachia isn't represented to its fullest extent," he says. "Artists like me, it's our job to carry that torch and shed some light on that region."

With One for the Losers, Colby T. Helms does more than shine a light on Appalachia. He shines a light on the people living within it: the dreamers, outcasts, survivors, cautionary tales, and everyday souls whose stories rarely make the spotlight, but are just as deserving as everybody else.