Luke Tyler Shelton is back — and this time, he’s swapped the six-string for 88 keys. Out today via Concord Records, “Reasons” is the Los Angeles singer-songwriter’s first release of 2026, and the first song he’s ever put to tape that was written on piano. Spoiler: it suits him.

Recorded and produced by Jonny Bell (Cage The Elephant, Zella Day, Chicano Batman) in Long Beach, “Reasons” pushes Shelton’s vocals and plainspoken songwriting to the front of the mix. The result feels both brand new and strangely familiar, like a half-remembered song from a Harry Nilsson record you swore you owned. Nods to Todd Rundgren and Clairo float through the arrangement too, hinting at the next landscape Shelton’s sound is quietly wandering into.

What makes “Reasons” hit a little harder is where it came from. “‘Reasons’ is the first song I’m putting out that I wrote on piano,” Shelton shares. “The song is bittersweet for me because I had written it from the perspective of my girlfriend at a hard time in our relationship. But putting myself in her headspace through my music allowed me to relate to her experience in a really cool way.” It’s an unusually generous move for a breakup-adjacent song — writing yourself out of the frame and letting someone else hold the pen.

The accompanying video, directed by Isaiah Hesford and Jake Howell, premieres today at 9 AM PT and leans fully into the song’s dreamlike mood. Shot in black and white, it finds Shelton seated at the piano while a miniature version of his girlfriend does everything in her power to steal his focus. It’s playful, surrealist, and refreshingly simple — a short film disguised as a music video.

Shelton’s year has been anything but quiet. He recently played his first headline show in New York City, performed at Green River Festival, and has been pulling double duty as Malcolm Todd’s guitarist — a gig that most recently landed him on The Tonight Show. Later this month, he’ll open for Wilderado in Aspen before heading back out on the road with Todd.

All of this follows last year’s debut EP Blue Sky, produced by Shooter Jennings and Jonathan Wilson, which merged country-rock, folk-pop, and Southern soul into something that sounded beamed in from early-’70s Laurel Canyon. If Blue Sky was the opening chord, “Reasons” is the key change — and it’s a good one.

Stream “Reasons” and watch the official video here: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Luke+Tyler+Shelton+Reasons