Riley Downing explores working-class stories on second solo album “Landfill Poetry”

Riley Downing, a founding member of the New Orleans Americana band The Deslondes, is releasing his second solo album, “Landfill Poetry,” turning to stories from his own work life to build songs about the “overlooked corners of American life.” In an interview for PBS NewsHour’s arts and culture series CANVAS, Geoff Bennett spoke with Downing about how his background shaped the album’s themes and tone ahead of its audience release this week.

Downing’s work with The Deslondes helped define a style that blends earthy country soul and roots music, and he brings that same focus on everyday realities to his solo material. “Landfill Poetry” continues the approach, using lyrics that center ordinary people and the routines that often sit outside public attention, while keeping the musical setting grounded in Americana traditions.

A key influence, Downing said, comes from his days working as a trash collector in Missouri. The album draws on that experience as a kind of observational lens, with songs built around what he encountered while moving through neighborhoods and public spaces, including the moments that can be missed when communities focus only on more visible institutions or events.

In describing the album’s purpose, Downing returned to the idea that American life contains narratives in places that are routinely ignored. By placing those stories at the center of his songwriting, he positions the work of collecting and disposing of waste, and the people who do it, as part of a broader cultural record rather than a hidden process.

Bennett’s conversation also situates Downing’s solo project within a longer career arc, referencing his role in The Deslondes and his transition to independent work. As a solo artist, Downing has more room to foreground the specific vantage point of “Landfill Poetry,” but the interview also frames the record as connected to the band’s roots-oriented storytelling.

The CANVAS interview was published by PBS NewsHour on August 28, 2026, positioning “Landfill Poetry” as an album where craft and lived experience intersect. With the project, Downing aims to translate the practical, sometimes physically demanding realities of working service jobs into songs designed for listeners to hear familiar scenes from a new angle.

As Downing’s second solo album reaches audiences, “Landfill Poetry” adds to the broader cultural conversation about whose stories get recorded and broadcast. The record’s emphasis on work and observation reflects a consistent strand in Americana music, while its Missouri-to-New Orleans bridge underscores how regional routines can become shared national material when artists treat daily labor as art rather than background.