Click to listen to John Vanderslice's 'Raw Wood'

After enduring a terrible breakup while maintaining a rigorous tour schedule to promote his last album, White Wilderness, John Vanderslice returned to his empty San Francisco home and needed time to get his head right. The California-based songwriter decided to walk it off. . .  for about 200 miles.

Vanderslice's experiences with solitary hiking and camping yielded his new, intensely personal album, Dagger Beach. Recorded on analog tape with no use of computers, it is a free, honest chronicle of his journey. Here you can get a first listen to "Raw Wood," a smooth and vulnerable track with shimmering piano and haunting harmonies.

"I wrote 'Raw Wood' after having an intense solo experience hiking and camping in the Mendocino National Forest," Vanderslice tells Rolling Stone. "I wanted the tempo and insistent, fluttering guitars to parallel the experience of hours of unceasing solitary hiking."

Dagger Beach will be self-released by Vanderslice, funded through Kickstarter, on June 11th.

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