For fans of the TV series “Nashville,” it probably was no surprise that actor Charles Esten released an album earlier this year.
He showed off his singing and guitar-playing chops on the show that aired on ABC and CMT from 2012 to 2018, playing the brooding and troubled but talented central character Deacon Claybourne.
And his X (formerly Twitter) followers probably thought it was about time. Esten started a project on the platform called “#EverySingleFriday” in July 2016 that ran for 54 weeks, where he released a song he wrote or co-wrote every week.
But his debut record, a collection of 14 original songs called “Love Ain’t Pretty,” was somewhat of a late arrival for a 58-year-old actor, who’s been on the road promoting “Pretty” since its release in January.
The singer-songwriter, accompanying himself on guitar and piano, makes a stop July 26, at the Pioneer Theater in downtown Manteo, North Carolina.
Fun fact: It’s Esten’s second performance on the Outer Banks. While attending William & Mary (graduating in 1987), he was the lead singer in a band called N’est Pas, who played in 1986 at the legendary Atlantis Beach Club in Nags Head.
Making a full-length album was Esten’s life-long ambition.
“Music has always been part of my life,” he said. “But my acting career took off.”
Call him the king of the understatement.
He hit the stage running in 1991 starring in the West End production of “Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story” in London.
Since then the actor has appeared in dozens of TV shows, including “Married With Children,” “The New Adventures with Old Christine,” “ER” and, of course, “Nashville.”
He recently played the role of Ward Cameron on the Netflix series “Outer Banks.”
Esten also was a regular panelist (using his nickname “Chip”) in the 1990s on the improvisational comedy show “Whose Line Is It Anyway?”
His resume includes three Kevin Costner movies.
But now, it’s full-speed ahead on music.
“A door just opened for me,” Esten said of recording the album at Sound Emporium Studios in Nashville. “I was ready for it.”
He had made a lot of friends in Music City where “Nashville” was filmed. Renowned producer-songwriter Marshall Altman was one of them.
“We had an immediate connection,” Esten said during a phone interview from his hometown of Pittsburgh, where he was playing Professor Harold Hill in a summer production of the classic play “The Music Man.”
Altman rounded up some of Nashville’s top musicians and songwriters to work on the debut album, which brings to mind the confessional singer-songwriter era in the 1970s (Jackson Browne, Neil Young, etc.) filtered through modern country.
Citing influences ranging from The Beatles, Bruce Springsteen and Elvis Costello, Esten touches the head and heart equally on “Pretty.”
While certainly the songs, which he wrote or co-wrote, have a slight twang, there are elements of rock and blues.
He describes them as “postcards from paradise.”
“I want people to feel something,” Esten explained. “But I also want them to celebrate, to dance.”
Esten possesses a warm, soulful voice that feels seasoned, delivering poetic nuggets that explore a wide range of subjects, including hope, love, death, loss, grace and redemption.
He’s in touch with his inner Springsteen.
“I try to write lyrics like people actually talk,” he said. “Conversations feel a little deeper.”
Take “Somewhere in the Sunshine,” a melodic, reflective song co-written by Jon Nite, which touches on grief: “And days when you miss me/and the lonely takes place/close your eyes/lift your head/feel the sun on your face.”
Other standout tracks include the bluesy rocker “I Ain’t,” the mid-tempo, meditative “One Good Move” and the yearning, 1980s-rock-style title song written with Jimmy Yeary and Marshall Altman, which would have melted his “Nashville” on-and-off squeeze and one true love Rayna James’ heart.
He sings: “Shows up when you don’t need it/and leaves you when you do/it’ll tear you to pieces/and make ‘em all come true.”
For his performance at the Pioneer, Esten will play tunes from the debut album as well as a few cover songs (he’s been known to merge Willie Nelson’s “Mama Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys” with The Beatles’ “Norwegian Wood”).
“I’m looking forward to it,” he said. “We (his wife and three children) love the Outer Banks.”
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If you go
When: Friday, July 26, at 7 p.m., with doors opening at 6:30 p.m.
Where: The Pioneer Theater, 109 Budleigh St., Manteo
Tickets: $40 to $50
Details: ThePioneerTheater.com
