Fritz Kahn and The Miracles tenderly awaken the soul with “Little Boy Blue”

At a moment when all this shouting makes it hard to hear the music, Fritz Kahn & The Miracles’ quiet whisper on their new single “Little Boy Blue” may be the loudest sound of the summer. A minimalist folk-country ballad, the track whispers up close instead of bursting out. It’s the opening preview of “A Place Called Dawn,” a surprisingly new EP based on the quiet resilience of a real all-night café hidden in rural Portugal. There, under the buzz of neon and between chipped porcelain mugs, outsiders find their place, and it’s in that flickering light that “Little Boy Blue” was born.

Co-produced by American roots stalwart Orville Johnson, it’s no frills, but it’s full of feeling. Johnson, who has a penchant for letting songs breathe, envelops the track in a cocoon of lo-fi warmth, allowing each chord and word to take its time and settle in. Think the quiet ache of Townes Van Zandt, the intimate hush of Iron & Wine, or the ratlike soul of Bonnie’ Prince’ Billy, and you’re in the right emotional territory. But “Little Boy Blue” is not just a song of sadness. There are no villains or saints here, just a nameless, uncondemned human attempting to make it through the day. In a culture that values sides and categorization, human empathy can feel radical.

It has something hypnotic in its simplicity: a slow, melodic groove that evokes the feeling of walking home after the bar closes, both full and heavy-hearted. The sort of song to not just listen to, but take with you, like a memory or a prayer. More than one, in the case of Fritz Kahn and The Miracles. “Little Boy Blue” is a moment of peace amid the storm, if only a reminder that sometimes, it’s enough to just be. As the lead offering from “A Place Called Dawn,” it sets the tone for a record that never begs for your attention yet earns it through peaceful honesty.