Paul Cauthen

Paul Mark Cauthen (born 1985/1986) is an American singer-songwriter from East Texas. He started his music career in an Americana/indie folk rock duo called Sons of Fathers, before turning solo. He has released five albums and an EP as a solo artist, the most recent being Book of Paul released on 3 April, 2026.

Early life Cauthen was born in Dallas, Texas. He grew up in a religious household. His father was a song leader in the conservative Christian Church of Christ, and his father's twin brother was the preacher there. Cauthen's father and uncle sang as a musical duo in church. Cauthen has said that the church he grew up in did not allow instruments, so the focus was on a cappella singing of what he called "heavenly highway hymns, the old hymnals",

Although his maternal grandfather Jim Paul Cauthen died when he was 10 years old, Cauthen was deeply influenced by his grandfather, who gave him a guitar and was a songwriter himself. Cauthen was his only male grandchild. Jim Paul Cauthen had spent time in the 1950s with Buddy Holly and The Crickets and was good friends with Holly's bandmate Sonny Curtis, who later fronted The Crickets.

Career Sons of Fathers Cauthen got his start playing in an Americana/indie folk rock band singer-songwriter duo with musician David Beck. Cauthen met Beck, whose father was Bill Whitbeck, long-time Robert Earl Keen bass player, in San Marcos, Texas in 2009. They got to know each other at a regular local songwriter's night series at Cheatham Street Warehouse. Beck gave deejay Jessie Scott their demo, who gave their demo to manager Marty Schwartz, who came out of retirement to manage the duo.

Both their 2011 and 2013 Sons of Fathers records, the self-titled Sons of Fathers and Burning Days, were produced by Lloyd Maines. Burning Days featured Regan Schmidt on lap steel/electric guitar, Dees Stribling on drums, Bryan Mammel on keyboards/accordion, Tony Browne on guitar/mandolin. The record also features Maines on pedal steel and Corby Schaub on guitar.

The duo also had a studio called Fast Horse Studios where they produced records by local bands like Canvas People, Carson McHone, Luke Bell, Pake Rossi, and others.

In April 2014, after five years together, the Sons of Fathers broke up.

Solo career

In 2016, in a shift from singing as a duo to lead vocals, Cauthen released his first solo record called My Gospel on Lightning Rod Records. My Gospel was listed as number 23 of Rolling Stone magazine's top 40 country records of 2016.

In 2018, Cauthen released the EP, Have Mercy. That song, "Everybody Walking This Land", was used in the end credits to the season 2 opener of the Starz network TV show, American Gods.

On June 22, 2018, Cauthen made his Grand Ole Opry debut as a solo artist. Cauthen had previously played the Opry twice with Sons of Fathers. In September 2019, the video was nominated by the Dallas Observer Music Awards for Best Music Video.

The second video from Room 41 was for the track "Prayed for Rain", which is about the struggles of sharecroppers from the bleak period of 1930s Dust Bowl. The song was co-written by Cauthen, Beau Bedford (Texas Gentlemen), Jason Burt (Medicine Man Revival) and singer-songwriter Ward Davis. The video was shot at Tate Farms in Rockwall, Texas.

In 2019, Cauthen and the Texas Gentlemen produced Elaina Kay's record, Issues.

In 2020 Cauthen teamed up with Orville Peck to release a pair of Righteous Brothers cover songs billed as the Unrighteous Brothers for Record Store Day. The pair recorded "Unchained Melody" and "You've Lost That Loving Feeling".

Cauthen often plays with and has collaborated with Cody Jinks. Cauthen and Jinks have recorded two covers together, Chris Cornell "Black Hole Sun", which they cut at Echo Lab studios, and the Waylon Jennings song, "Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)". Cauthen has also toured with and sang with Margo Price, and has worked closely with the Texas Gentlemen, among a local community of other musicians. "Big Velvet" is also a song on Room 41.

Cauthen lives in Tyler, Texas with his wife Elizabeth Cauthen and their 3 dogs.

Discography Sons of Fathers 2011: Sons of Fathers (self-released) 2012: Whiskey Christmas EP (self-released) 2013: Burning Days (Blanco River Music) 2014: "What Kind of Girl Are You" by Ray Charles single (self-released) 2014: "Hell and Back" single (self-released)

Unrighteous Brothers 2020: "Unchained Melody" and "You've Lost That Loving Feeling" (single)

Paul Cauthen

Title Album details Peak chart positions Sales US Country US Heat US Indie My Gospel Release date: October 14, 2016 Label: Lightning Rod Records 50 — —Have Mercy EP Release date: June 22, 2018 Label: Lightning Rod Records — 22 —Room 41 Release date: September 6, 2019 Label: Lightning Rod Records — 2 18 US: 5,700 Country Coming Down Release date: April 1, 2022 Label: Thirty Tigers — — — "—" denotes releases that did not chart