Conventional wisdom says that singer-songwriters need a mythology. We can't supply you with any Lanegan- or Earle-style tales of past drug abuse or Adams-ish anecdotes of stupidity and arrogance in telling the story of Rocky Votolato. But here's what we know: Rocky is a soft-spoken, very sweet, very hard-working 28-year-old father of two, born in rural Texas and raised in the Pacific Northwest indie scene (where he fronted the acclaimed but emo-stigmatized Waxwing). He has matured over the course of three increasingly accomplished solo albums, and writes songs that seem to have been scratched into a boxcar wall by a worn-out and lonesome ghost.