Alone

Alright Zoo Freaks, settle in and let this one breathe. The Zoo Crew is spinning "Alone," the June 12, 2026 single from Austin blues rocker Paul Val and Gary Clark Jr. Paul wrote it, sang it, and played acoustic guitar on it, and Gary came in on guitar and vocals, courtesy of Warner Brothers, on a record Paul put out on his own imprint, God's will. He posted it up as an old Austin tradition with a fresh sound, cut over at 512 Studios with Omar Vallejo producing and playing bass, Duke Decter co-producing, JJ Johnson on drums, Victor Vallejo on backup vocals, and Matt Hubbard on keys and piano. Paul has already been carrying the tune out on the road, including a full live set at the Benicassim Blues Festival where "Alone" sat right in the middle of the night. The lyric keeps circling the same hard truth: if he leaves tomorrow he knows he would feel alone, he cannot find a reason and he needs a million ways to stay, and he has to accept the things he cannot change. Slow, low, and a little haunted. That is the whole sermon.

Paul Val Hernandez did not come up inside the Austin clubs. He was born out in Riverside, California, the desert side of the state, and he has said he started playing when he was nine. His first concert was Gwar when he was five years old, and he still talks about getting run through that fake meat shredder onstage while the room went wild. He came up on punk, the Ramones, the Sex Pistols, Black Flag, then heavy rock and roll, and the blues grabbed him around fifteen and never let go. The trouble was that the kids his age back home were not into Texas music, and he was already dressing and thinking like he belonged down here. He finally said the heck with it and moved to Austin. First room he walked into was the Skylark Lounge on the east side. That is where he fell in with Soul Man Sam, who let him sit in and put him on stages he would have taken a lot longer to reach on his own. From there it was the Continental Club, Saturday nights at King Bee, blues brunch, a live album cut in the room, and eventually a run through Spain and France. If you want the blues, he will tell you, you got it, and he means the Austin kind.

Gary Clark Jr. is the other half of this record, and his story starts on the east side of Austin, where he was born on February 15, 1984. Records were always on in the house, soul, R&B, rock, and country, and he picked up the guitar as a kid. The turn came at Antone's. He has said his dream was to play blues there, and Clifford Antone put him onstage at fifteen, underage, with Pinetop Perkins, James Cotton, and the rest of that generation that had played with the old Chicago masters. Jimmie Vaughan became a mentor. Gary has said plain as day that he would not be doing what he is doing if it were not for Antone's, and years later he helped bring the room back and co-owns it. Two Austin guitar players, one who had to move here to find his people and one who grew up inside the room that made the scene, sharing a slow song about staying or leaving. That is a pretty good night on the Zoo.

Paul keeps the lights on at his official website, paulval.com, where the single is posted right on the front page. He is on Instagram as @paulval and on Facebook at Paul Val. A separate fan site or Facebook fan group did not turn up. The folks who follow him tend to gather around the live rooms and the official pages. Gary's official home is garyclarkjr.com, with Instagram at @garyclarkjr, Facebook at Gary Clark Jr., and X at @garyclarkjr. Put the needle back on "Alone" and let those two guitars talk.