Less than a year after releasing his self-titled debut EP, Dan Lepien shows growth and recalcitrance on a digital single. The Sauk City country singer registers protest against much of the current state of his music’s commercial radio format on “Outlaw Songs.” With the kind of emphatic beat that characterized much of the best of ‘90s radio country, Lepien sounds mournful over the state of his art and defiant in wanting to break the mold by getting to his sound’s roots. “Outlaw Song”" should whet trad country lovers for an entire album by Lepien. In the meanwhile, this number can be found in its original studio version and an unplugged rendering performed at the American Legion post in Jefferson, where the neon lights provide an appropriately honky tonk-looking backdrop.
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