India, Aug. 22 -- I found Ryan Davis the way one finds a dark half-forgotten bar tucked between well-lit blocks: unexpectedly and with a distinct sense of having been living without something essential.

A Spotify auto-play recommendation, a click in the silence of midnight, and I was suddenly trawling through Louisville's poetic underbelly, while still in my armchair.

After 15 years of making music, Davis is having what feels like both a discovery and a gentle reckoning. Not a breakout manufactured by algorithm and marketers, but recognition earned one scratchy, unguarded moment at a time.

His latest album, New Threats from the Soul, which he self-released in July, is earning universal critical acclaim. It has a score of 89 on Metacrit...