There’s a beautiful simplicity to Sean Rowe’s excellent latest album, The Salesman and the Shark, perhaps because the New York state musician has little time for songwriters who don’t sit down without first reaching for a thesaurus.

“I’m trying to give people something that they can grab and hold onto,” says Rowe, on the line from his hometown of Troy. “Sometimes you get people who write songs that are overly poetic for the sake of sounding poetic. That irks me a bit—I don’t think that it’s effective.”

Rowe’s approach, however, most certainly is. The Salesman and the Shark is loaded with great lines, including “Running like the ground was made of fire/Who could know the terrible deliverance, the consequence, was hidden under the water’s diamond eyes”, from the tension-filled “The Battle of Buttermilk Falls”. No less admirable is “Morning came and it ate his heart/Oh, but the thunder of the river behind him brought him up to his knees”, from the smoky piano ballad “Long Way Home”.

Where things really get gorgeous, though, is the music. Even if he’s not on a mission to out-excess the Flaming Lips, Spiritualized, or Rick Wakeman, the baritone-voiced Rowe is more than willing to dress things up sonically. Released on the boutique label Anti-, The Salesman and the Shark is built on a foundation of acoustic guitar and bohemian-barfly vocals. Much of the album’s beauty, however, comes from mournful string flourishes, fallen-angel background vocals, and coal-mine–coloured splashes of organ. Helping raise the drama factor was producer Woody Jackson.

“I don’t have a lot of engineering or technical abilities when it comes to connecting all the wires and making the sound happen,” Rowe says. “When we went into the studio, we came out with new versions of the songs. What was really great was that I felt like my visions for the songs were realized, without compromising what I’d done. Things came out better than I would have thought. That’s a testament to the producer I worked with, and all the other musicians as well.”

The final result was one of the best records you probably never heard in 2012. Funnily, though, whenever Rowe is profiled it’s usually his admittedly fascinating backstory that gets most of the ink. In the past, the singer has spent time living off the land as a survivalist.

Considering the world’s fascination with shows like Survivorman, Rowe isn’t shocked that articles end up casting him as a modern-day version of Alone in the Wilderness’ Richard Proenneke.

“It’s got to the point where it’s become a bit of a parody,” the singer contends. “As far as wilderness training goes, I’ve had my share of it and enjoy being able to use survivor skills that have been part of me since I was a kid. I’m by no means an expert, but when you know something about a subject that most people don’t know anything about, it ends up looking like you know more than you actually do.”

A better way, perhaps, to tie Rowe’s love of the land to his work is to consider what he’s after as an artist. Think raw, simple, and unspoiled by technology.

“All that matters is that it’s honest,” Rowe says. “If music has that quality, no matter what the genre, I’m open to it.”