“County Fair Buffalo” is seven tracks of intricate finger-picking, vivid lyrics, humor, insight, personal stories, fears and cryptic one-liners.

It is the third Paprika Joe album. The first was an album recorded in his basement in Seattle in the 1990s. The second, “Paprika Joe Rides Again,” was recorded in Vermontville several years ago and is still available.

Waters said he had so much fun writing and recording songs for PJRA that after it was over, he just kept writing more. He’s been inspired by the Beck album “Mutations” ever since it came out. “Mutations” was a deviation from Beck’s previous output of lo-fi “’90s anthems” to a pure country album with elements of other genres poking in. Waters calls these “buffaloes.”

His family has a saying, “High, Low, Buffalo.” They say it after someone takes a trip. They’re asking about the high point, the low point and a “buffalo” of the trip. The buffalo is something weird that happened. In “County Fair Buffalo,” the buffaloes might be fuzzed out guitar solos, African hand percussion instruments or a slide guitar played with an EBow.

Joe Waters, AKA, “Paprika Joe” is releasing his album “County Fair Buffalo” with an album release party at Hex and Hop on Saturday. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

The album’s title also refers to it being a concept album with songs all loosely themed around being at a state fair. Waters said he was influenced by The Byrds’ album “Sweetheart of the Rodeo.”

“County Fair Buffalo” was recorded primarily in his barn and porch at his home in Vermontville. He laid down the drum, vocal, guitar, bass and slide guitar tracks. Water’s former bandmate Lauren Yates and his son Clinton provide atmospheric background vocals on “Quarters,” Tyler Dezago plays fiddle on “Hypnotist,” and all the Waters children fill “Don’t Mean Much” with moody snapping.

In the 1990s in Seattle, everyone was in a band, Waters said. The music scene was robust and he said the experience of seeing someone play at a small club and then hearing them getting airtime on the radio was contagious.

He always played bass and guitar, backing up people. But he didn’t play a solo show until just a couple of years ago when Mingo Lodge from the band Big Boss Sausage recommended he play at Hex and Hop.

“Ethan (Mikesell) has done a really good job of building community out there,” Waters said of the brewery.

Waters moved here from Washington nine years ago. He said there’s a different set of music here, and a different atmosphere. Out west, he said, if someone wanted to play a show, they’d usually have to rent out a hall. Here, he was shocked by the number of bars, parks and restaurants looking for live music.

“The culture here is very conducive to musicians going out and playing music,” Waters said.

Also, he said, on the East Coast, people are hungry for originals.

When his brother-in-law, Rocky Stephenson, from local band The Midnight Stargazers, moved to town, he was on a kick writing originals. Waters said this inspired him to write some of his own.

Sometimes his lyrics come from things he overhears people say, or a line from a book or a movie.

The song “Good Fair and Fine” came about after he heard a woman talking about the mantras she said in her head to calm her nerves on a bumpy Cape Air flight from Boston to Lake Clear.

“Just try and make it through / and when you do / you’ll see it, the light / the morning dew will wash away the night.”

“Quarters” is a song written at Aldi about the generosity of strangers.

“Quarters / I need quarters / to feed my sons and daughters.”

Waters tries to obscure his lyrics enough so they’re not just about one thing. He loves when a song is interpreted differently by everyone who listens to it.

“I’ll write something that’s very specific to my situation, and then I’ll kind of go through a process where I ‘un-write’ it and make it more obscure to where it’s less obvious what it’s about and maybe a more universal song as opposed to a song about Joe shopping at Aldi’s,” he said.

“Hypnotist” is a waltzing dive into Water’s fear of being hypnotized.

“I always had this fear of what they would make me do,” he said.

“The hypnotist snapped / my mind came back / and I looked to you / you turned your back.”

He said the song was written to sound like the gigantic Washington State Fair, where he took his wife Rachelle on their first date in their junior year of high school.

“Carousel” is an abstract song with a tight angst at its core.

“If he would just let you go / then we could all know / just how fast you’d run free.”

To Waters, carousel horses are always “frothing at the bit” to run, but they’re stuck going in circles.

He has a painting of a carousel horse hanging next to his work desk. This horse is his inspiration, he said. He imagines they’re both stuck in a circle doing their job — an important job that does good things for people — but one that is repetitive.

“Sometimes you just want to get off the pole and run free in the woods,” Waters said.

On Saturday, from 5 to 8 p.m., Waters will play songs from his first album for a bit, then play the new album front to back. He’ll be joined by Mike Reilly on drums, Shamim Allen for some background vocals and Peter Crowley, who Waters played with in their band ADK players.

“County Fair Buffalo” will be on sale at Ampersound and everywhere Waters plays shows. He’ll be playing at the Hotel Saranac every Friday from 4 to 7 p.m. in July and August before heading over to the Pickled Pig to play from 8 to 11 p.m.