The Hold Steady's Craig Finn turns to Austin, from producer to musicians and studio, for solo record

In December, Craig Finn, frontman for well-known Brooklyn rock band the Hold Steady, took the stage at downtown hot dog joint Frank as a warm-up for a tour to promote his new solo album, "Clear Heart Full Eyes," which is out Tuesday and was recorded in Austin with producer Mike McCarthy and a group of Austin musicians.

Aside from the fairly small, unusual venue (though the restaurant has been offering a steady stream of live music), the setup wasn't all that different from a show by Finn's other band: Men outnumbered women by at least 2-to-1, and a healthy amount of beer and booze was consumed.

Finn has never been outspoken in his appearance, and that night was no different, as he led the band in a plain blue shirt and rectangular glasses. As always, he gestured a lot as he sang, telling stories with his hands. He chatted between songs.

Though the songs were unmistakably Finn's - on the long side, full of words and narrative, references to Jesus and Catholicism (though not nearly as many as usual), dead rock stars and self-destructive behavior (but, again, not quite as much) - they were different than the Hold Steady's material. Finn sang more first- and second-person pronouns. If the Hold Steady's songs unfold like novels, with recurring characters negotiating the ups and (mostly) downs of adolescence, these songs felt more like short stories.

The biggest difference, however, was the sound, a considerably more reined-in version of the raucous, over-the-top rock 'n' roll that made the Hold Steady pretty famous over the past eight or so years.

On an uncharacteristically freezing Austin day that same week, Finn joked about the weather as he talked about the new album outside a packed coffee shop. "I'm a Minnesotan; I can handle the cold," he said, hands tucked into his jacket between sips of coffee.

Of course, fans of Finn and the Hold Steady already know that. The state, and Minneapolis in particular, is a common setting throughout the Hold Steady's catalog. Starting with its 2004 debut, "Almost Killed Me," the band has attracted a loyal following (and probably as many people who hate it) for its mix of over-the-top classic rock (Springsteen and the Replacements get thrown around a lot to describe their sound) and Finn's storytelling, informed in equal parts by his love of music and the world surrounding it and his Catholic upbringing. Kids make out at the high school dance, people get lost in drugs, some of those people find Jesus and are saved.

The band followed "Almost Killed Me" with "Separation Sunday," "Boys and Girls in America," "Stay Positive" and "Heaven is Whenever." Each album, it seemed, brought more people on board, at least judging by crowds at shows. The sound grew, too, perhaps peaking with "Boys and Girls," which begins with the four-minute-plus "Stuck Between Stations," an ode to teenagers in the Twin Cities stuffed with epic E Street-like piano, references to "On the Road" and the poet John Berryman.

Things leveled off on later albums, but the basic elements remained, albeit with less energy. Reviews of "Heaven is Whenever," which the band recorded without keyboard/piano player Franz Nicolay (who had grown into a prominent role in the band), were generally lukewarm, including one from Pitchfork that said the new songs "just don't hit as hard." The band wasn't as happy with the new album either, according to Finn, and touring had started to take its toll. The band decided to take a break.

In part to pass the time in January last year, Finn began writing a song a day. "I was listening to kind of classic songwriting, Townes Van Zandt, Warren Zevon, Randy Newman," Finn said. "A lot of the songs I wrote ended up being terrible. I kind of looked back and said this one's good, this one's not so good, and the songs all kind of came from there." Twenty-three songs emerged from the exercise.

He also wrote the music, a job that Tad Kubler usually handles with the Hold Steady. "I thought doing something different might challenge me a little bit," he said. "I kind of wanted to do a more organic record where I wrote the music and the lyrics. It's less me singing along with a band and more letting the words drive the thing. I was kind of leading the band with vocals, which is way different than I'm used to doing."