AMNA NAWAZ: Novelist Willy Vlautin# has built his career writing about## people on the edges of the American dream,# working-class families, lonely alcoholics,## and those struggling to make ends meet# in the fast-changing American West.

While his books have earned# comparisons to John Steinbeck,## Vlautin is also a musician,# telling his stories through song.

Senior arts correspondent Jeffrey# Brown traveled to Portland, Oregon,## for our arts and culture series, Canvas.

(MUSIC) JEFFREY BROWN: It's not often that a# novel comes with its own soundtrack,## but author Willy Vlautin is also a songwriter# and guitarist with the band The Delines.## And characters like Eddie, a good-hearted,# 40-something house painter struggling to## get by in Portland, Oregon, appear in# songs and at the heart of Vlautin's## new novel, "The Left and the Lucky."

WILLY VLAUTIN, Author and Musician: I have## always been obsessed with that idea of kind# of broken people or people at the fringes,## and so there's those who get lucky and stay on# the road and there's -- that get left behind.

JEFFREY BROWN: He's written eight novels to# date, mostly stories of the dispossessed,## the barely making it, the unsung heroes at# the margins of contemporary American life.

He works in a small office looking out# at Portland St.

Johns neighborhood,## surrounded by images, old movie stars, his# own heroes, his hometown of Reno, Nevada,## a man lying in the street under a# sign that reads "Play the Races."

WILLY VLAUTIN: I loved it so much# because half the time I feel like that,## half the time I'm grateful that I'm not# that guy, but I understand that guy.

JEFFREY BROWN: And we spoke recently in# the back patio of Marie's, a bar down## the street from his office that makes an# appearance in "The Left and the Lucky."

Vlautin told me how books and# music saved him growing up.

WILLY VLAUTIN: My relationship with books and# records started just because I'd find one that## made me feel less alone, and I loved them so# much.

You're like, you want to hug the book,## you want to eat the records, and you# realize you can't.

So you have to join up.

JEFFREY BROWN: An early# influence was John Steinbeck?

WILLY VLAUTIN: Passionate# teachers in Reno, Nevada,## taught me Steinbeck, and I bought# it hook, line and sinker.

I mean,## he wrote about misfits.

He wrote about people# that no one else cared about.

He's funny.

When my life was going sideways, I was# with Mack and the boys living in the## pipes off Cannery Row.

And the other# thing was, my mom was a single mom.## She struggled mentally.

She hadn't had a# job before, and she had to get a job.

And## she got paid less than the men.

She was sexually# harassed a lot at work, and she was an oversharer.

JEFFREY BROWN: She told you about all this?

WILLY VLAUTIN: She told me about# it all.

So I u.. it can be just to show up for work every day.

(MUSIC) JEFFREY BROWN: Music was his other way# forward, including his lead singer and## songwriter for the band Richmond Fontaine.

But# describing himself as painfully shy growing up,## performing brought another problem to overcome.

WILLY VLAUTIN: I forgot that you have to get# in front of people.

So I -- from 16 to 33,## I just was drunk every time# I got in front of people.

JEFFREY BROWN: Drinking was to overcome that?

WILLY VLAUTIN: Oh, yes, that's the only way I# could get up there.

And so I was not cut out## for it, but it did cure me of being that way.

If# it wasn't for being in a band, I probably would## be working in a warehouse somewhere, being# too shy to barely go to the grocery store.

JEFFREY BROWN: In fact, he did work# in warehouses and other odd jobs,## including as a house painter in Portland,# and got his drinking under control.

WILLY VLAUTIN: I always knew# what I wanted to write about,## and I always wanted to write# about the people around me.

JEFFREY BROWN: And his writing now often# features characters here in St.

Johns,## one of Portland's historic# working-class neighborhoods,## who are struggling in a rapidly# gentrifying and far more expensive city.

One recent novel, "The Night Always Comes"... ACTRESS: We're in it together.

We're# getting into it for the family, OK?

JEFFREY BROWN: ... made into a film last year,## comes with a dedication for the Portland that let# a hard-living house painter buy his own house.

WILLY VLAUTIN: So many cities in the West,## the working-class people of the city get# pushed out.

Whole neighborhoods .. and housing prices I think went up almost# five times.

And so it was shocking to me,## the massive growth or influx of money and the way# Portland changed.

Yes, I had to write about it.

JEFFREY BROWN: And it became the background# for "The Left and the Lucky" and an unlikely## friendship between house painter Eddie# Wilkens and an 8-year-old named Russell## from a broken home, a friendship# that just might save them both.

WILLY VLAUTIN: And it was# a cool friendship, I think.

JEFFREY BROWN: You enjoyed# writing it or finding it?

WILLY VLAUTIN: Oh, yes.

I love -- you can't# save people in real life.

Yes, .. save yourself.

But, in books, you can take one# broken kid and kind of give him a break.

I mean,## there's nothing worse than seeing -- like,# I can see it.

Just going to grocery store,## you see some broken kid or some# family.

I can just feel that stuff.

And so writing about it both eases it out of# my mind, and then I can change directions.

JEFFREY BROWN: I don't know if I# ever heard a writer say this.

So,## as a novelist, I mean, you# feel like you can save people?

WILLY VLAUTIN: I always felt foolishly that if# everything I was scared of, loved was destroyed## by, anxiety-ridden by, and put it in a box, I# always thought if I took one of those things out## and studied it, wrote stories around it from every# angle, that it would take the power away of it.

But what I learned is like, you can hold# somebody's hand through a hard time,## and it just eases my mind.

So you're# putting them in a bad situation, yes,## sure, but then their friend going through it.

JEFFREY BROWN: At 58, Vlautin says his# Delines bandmates, Amy Boone, Cory Gray,## Sean Oldham, and Freddy Trujillo,# are the musical friends he intends## to age and play with.

The long hours of# writing are what he's best suited for,## he insists, like digging a ditch all# day without knowing where you're going.

But being in a band, well, he still# loves the music and the people.

WILLY VLAUTIN: The Delines are like the# coolest people ever.

So I hope to keep## doing that band until I'm really old and playing# some lounge somewhere, and writing -- I feel,## with books, like I got invited to a party# that I wasn't supposed to get invited to.

When they published me, I was like,# really?

You're letting me in to this party?

JEFFREY BROWN: You're in.

WILLY VLAUTIN: And then I'm like, OK,## then I'm going to work as hard as I can# in the corner.

And don't kick .. the party.

I will be the janitor.

I will# be the barback.

It doesn't matter to me.

JEFFREY BROWN: In addition to "The# Left and the Lucky" soundtrack,## The Delines latest album is titled "The Set Up."

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm# Jeffrey Brown in Portland, Oregon.