Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Sundance Head releases his first album since winning The Voice on Friday.

“Stained Glass and Neon” comes not from the record deal he received for winning the show — that failed to produce music.

It comes as a result of his friendship with Dean Dillon, a longtime songwriter and artist and head of Wildcatter Records.

On his website, Sundance explains how they met at a Houston Rodeo week performance.

“Dean was in a hallway tuning his guitar,” Sundance recalls. “I really didn’t know anything about him, I just thought to myself, ‘This dude looks really cool and he has a bad-ass guitar’ and we are playing a show together.

“It was really fortunate for me to meet him this way, I think, because I wasn’t one of those people who wanted something from him. I think that’s one of the reasons we became friends.”

Dillon said he was thinking about retiring at the time. Then he heard Sundance sing and decided he had to work with the 40-year-old country-soul singer from Texas.

“Stained Glass and Neon” featured 13 songs, including the already released “Leave Her Wild,” which has also produced a music video. You can check that out below.

Dillon wrote some of the songs, found some of the others. He also produced the album.

Sundance has co-writing credit on two tracks, “Close Enough to Walk” and “Drive Me To Drinkin.’”

But the former Voice champ says he signed off and made a personal connection with every song on the album.

“Dean found a way to really pick songs that would fit me,” Sundance says. “He dove in and he might just know me better than I know myself.

“I don’t know how he did it so perfectly because all of the songs just scream Sundance Head. I’m very proud of (the album) and I couldn’t have done it without him, that’s for sure.”

Editor’s Note: About 11 hours after its released, “Stained Glass and Neon” was number nine on the iTunes country albums chart.