Nikki Lane

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Nikki Lane (2014)

Nicole Lane Frady , stage name Nikki Lane , born October 17, 1983 in Greenville , South Carolina , is an American singer-songwriter and country singer. Unlike many newcomers in the genre, who gear their music more or less strongly towards the pop market, it is strongly oriented towards outlaw country and performers from the 1960s and 1970s such as Waylon Jennings and Loretta Lynn .

biography

Nicole Lane Frady grew up in a working-class household . Her father worked as a road worker. Her mother later described her as resolute and unsteady, but also as independent, her father as someone who liked to party late at night, but got his husband back to work early in the morning. The parents divorced early. Most of her childhood - according to Lane later in an interview - spent with her grandfather, with whom she often went to flea markets . Otherwise she sang in the church choir - although her solo performances didn’t cut a good figure.

In Greenville, Lane Fady attended high school but dropped out early. Professionally, she first tried to establish herself as a freelance fashion designer . In 2006 she moved to Los Angeles . Later there was another change of residence to New York . The later country singer and singer-songwriter came to music because of an unfortunate love affair with a country musician who left her to record an album in Alabama . In her first self- written songs , which were written in 2007/2008, she dealt with the painful separation, among other things. Stylistically - Lane said later - she also had to choose between punk and country. Since her voice is more country-savvy, she decided on country.

Nashville , Tennessee , the unofficial capital of US country music, has become the new professional and artistic point of orientation and the center of life . From New York, she sent demo tapes to various musicians and asked if they would like to record an album with her . The response was positive. In 2011 she received a recording contract with the independent label IAmSound . The first release was the EP Gone, Gone, Gone . In the fall of the same year, her first studio album was released - Walk Of Shame . The album was produced by Lewis Pesacov, a member of the Fool's Gold formation. In addition, Pesacov was also involved as a songwriter - on the piece Gone, Gone, Gone , one of the lead stories of the album. In addition to their own compositions, the album also contained the cover version of a Muddy Waters piece - I Can't Be Satisfied .

The debut was not a commercial success; however, Nikki Lane's mix of roots rock and outlaw country got good reviews. As a result, she was able to complete an extensive US tour and switch to a new label. This was followed by appearances at major industry festivals such as the Newport Folk Festival , the Mountain Jam Festival and the Red Wing Roots Festival. She also made special guest appearances on the tour of Social Distortion and - alongside well-known acts such as Emmylou Harris , Wynonna Judd and Boz Scaggs - a guest appearance on the occasion of Bob Dylan's 75th birthday in the Nashville Grand Ole Opry . Nikki Lane's second album All Or Nothin ' followed in May 2014 - released by her new label New West Records. The producer was Dan Auerbach from the Black Keys formation , whom Lane had met by chance at a flea market. Auerbach offered Nikki Lane to record the album for free in his Easy Eye Sand Studio. Also included on the CD was a duet with Auerbach - the song Love's On Fire .

Regardless of the rather poor chart success of All Or Nothin ' , Nikki Lane completed other tours and other appearances. In May 2016 she made guest appearances in Belgium and the major German cities of Hamburg , Berlin , Cologne , Stuttgart and Munich . In 2015 she was nominated by the Americana Music Association as a candidate for the award "Outstanding Artist of the Year". In late 2016, Nikki Lane announced the release of their third studio album. The release with the title Highway Queen came out in February 2017. The recordings of the songs - including the title song as well as 700,000 Rednecks , which had previously been part of the live repertoire - took place partly in the Echo Lab Studio in Denton , Texas , partly in Club Roar in Nashville .

In addition to her music, Nikki Lane runs a fashion design shop in Nashville called High Class Hillbilly . There she offers, among other things, unique pieces in vintage style, which she has collected over the course of her tours.

Style and reviews

Nikki Lane described her decision to write songs as a form of self-therapy - a way of expressing the things that are important to her. Country and soul were always present in her parents' house via radio . Strong musical influences are Jaylon Jennings, the 1960s icon Loretta Lynn and - like Jennings, the outlaw country interpreter Merle Haggard . Wanda Jackson was also important to her. Although she is regularly compared to Jackson, this is not the only musical reference point for her. She rates the music scene in Nashville positively - especially because the artists there support each other in their projects. Lane: "There is a small scene in Nashville, but an intimate one - we all do our own thing." In a 2015 interview, she expressed herself critically about the touring stress and the fact that it was financially in no relation to the effort. Ultimately, what motivates her to perform is the concert-goers and fans, who she doesn't want to disappoint.

The music press and other media rated the authenticity and originality of their music positively. Allmusic classifies Nikki Lane's music as a reinvention of 1960s country music for a modern audience. It merges casually - so Allmusic to Walk Of Shame - retro rock and old-school-country into a coherent overall picture. The Rolling Stone noted Nikki Lane have common stereotypes broken in the traditionally male-dominated outlaw country. The website exclaim.ca particularly highlighted the track Gone, Gone, Gone on the debut Walk Of Shame - a “Lo-Fi ode to independence” and sound-wise located between Malibu and Nashville. Lane's voice is a joy and lies somewhere between Dolly Parton and Best Coast singer Bethany Cosentino. The online magazine American Songwriter characterized Walk Of Shame half as a rock'n'roll album, half as a rough, unpolished country sound and drew the conclusion: “Not bad for a girl who failed in the tenth grade choir. "

Her concerts in Germany also met with a positive response. Matthias Strzoda , musician and veteran of the Hamburg School , emphasized in a contribution to Zeit Online the seriousness that lies behind the relaxed concert routine: “The finest plucking and Emmylou-Harris euphony are not the topic - your voice is the focus: 'Me I'm a country singer, as you've probably noticed, 'she says ironically. Not to be overlooked: She knows big cities and their nightlife culture, lived in Los Angeles and New York before moving to Nashville. In reality, however, she is an interpreter who is truly attached to the genre, who emphasizes important lines of the song as loudly and sharply as only the great Tammy Wynette could - a natural event that could push many PA systems to their limits. ” The Stuttgarter Zeitung wrote : “With all the casualness that Lane displays between the songs of her one and a half hour concert, the musician shows a high degree of professionalism during the tracks. With a vocal color that easily changes from girlish to rock tube and thanks to the musical support of another singer and a guitarist, Lane interprets her songs in an accomplished manner without losing authenticity. "

Discography

  • Gone, Gone, Gone (2011; EP; IAmSound Records)
  • Walk Of Shame (2011; IAmSound Records)
  • All Or Nothin ' (2014; New West Records)
  • Highway Queen (2017; New West Records)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Biographical information on Nikki Lane's homepage , accessed on November 29, 2016
  2. ↑ a b Nikki Lane: Well, Darling, It's Not 1972 , Frankie Alvaro, LA Record, April 25, 2015 (Eng.)
  3. ↑ a b c Five Minutes at CMJ With Nikki Lane , Jeremy Egner, ArtsBeat, October 22, 2011 (Eng.)
  4. ↑ a b c d e f Nikki Lane , Andreas Graban, CMN / countrymusicnews.de, February 4, 2016
  5. ↑ a b Nikki Lane: Walking The Line , Sean L. Maloney, American Songwriter, September 1, 2011 (Eng.)
  6. ↑ a b Nikki Lane - All Or Nothin ' ( Memento of the original from December 1, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Bio information on the Music Circus Concertbüro website, accessed on November 29, 2016 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.musiccircus.de
  7. ↑ a b Nikki Lane: Old material, presented adorable cool , Matthias Strzoda, Zeit Online, May 6, 2016
  8. ↑ Hey presents: Nikki Lane on Tour , Hey (online music journal), March 13, 2016
  9. ↑ Americana Music Association Announces Awards Nominees , Brittney McKenna, American Songwriter, May 14, 2015 (Eng.)
  10. ↑ Nikki Lane Talks "Vulnerable" New Dan Auerbach-Produced Album "All or Nothin '" , Chuck Dauphin, billboard.com, July 9, 2014 (Eng.)
  11. ↑ Nikki Lane , Andrew Leahey, artist biography at allmusic.com, accessed on November 29, 2016.
  12. ↑ Nikki Lane: Walk of Shame , Mark Deming, allmusic.com, access: November 29, 2016.
  13. ↑ Outlaw Country Singer Nikki Lane Goes "All or Nothin '" on New Album , Jason Newman, Rolling Stone, March 5, 2014 (Eng.)
  14. ↑ Nikki Lane: Walk of Shame , Randi Beers, exclaim.ca, September 27, 2011 (Eng.)
  15. ↑ Nikki Lane in Stuttgart: “I'm not stoned, because I'm not a bitch” , Daphne R. Demitriou, Stuttgarter Zeitung, May 18, 2016

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Lane, Nikki
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lane Frady, Nicole
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American songwriter and country musician
DATE OF BIRTH 17th October 1983
PLACE OF BIRTH Greenville, South Carolina , USA