Nick Shoulders Tells His Story, Fights Against Despair On “All Bad”, Title Track From His New Album Out September 8th
Watch the video for “All Bad” here
New album All Bad is out September 8th via Gar Hole Records, pre-order here
Shoulders’ Fall North American “All Bad” tour includes shows in Brooklyn, Nashville, DC, Philadelphia, Toronto and Atlanta
“All Bad is a defiant manifesto that takes direct aim at societal failures, ecological destruction, zealot corruption and, of course, delivers breathtaking, thoughtful odes to Shoulders’ home in the mountains of Fayetteville.”
-Paste
August 23, 2023 – Nick Shoulders will release his latest album All Bad on September 8th, via Gar Hole Records (the label he founded and co-owns). Today, he releases the album’s title track, a prime example of All Bad’s multilayered emotionality. “All Bad” unfolds as both a painfully real piece of autobiography and an emphatic statement against despair (“We bury friends and try to share our pain/November hurricanes and acid rain/They built to burn but we will live to maintain/Because it ain’t all bad”). The accompanying music video, directed by Nick Futch, was filmed in Shoulders’ home state of Arkansas. Starting near his childhood home in the Ouachita foothills at the beginning, the video follows Shoulders along the Arkansas river and into the Ozarks, mimicking Shoulders’ life chronologically along with the song.
Taking a cue from some of his most formative influences (the likes of Hazel Dickens and Jimmy Driftwood), Shoulders created All Bad in an effort to “honestly interpret the grim political and social reality we exist in,” as he puts it. “Every one of these songs is carved from some of the hardest experiences we’ve ever had,” he says. “The hope is that people will recognize something of their own lives in those stories and feel understood and seen.” But even at its most sorrowful moments, All Bad sustains an unbridled exuberance, thanks largely to Shoulders’ riveting vocal work—an element indelibly shaped by the landscape that raised him. “My musical upbringing at home was mostly learning owl calls, whistling along with cardinals, whooping and hollering with all my little friends out in the woods,” he says. “All that primitive yodeling I did as a kid ended up turning into a physical skill set that became so important to my singing without me even realizing.”
All Bad ultimately encapsulates everything that makes Shoulders’ inimitable form of country music (or “grandpa music” as he calls it) so vital: a heady balance of dazzling musicianship and punk defiance, coupled with gritty eccentricity and a generational connection to the roots of the genre. The album emerged from the chaos of the post-pandemic world, and manages to be a plea for patience as much as a call to action. With a singing style deeply rooted in his family’s musical lineage and a heartfelt reverence for his lifelong home of mountainous Arkansas, the incisive yet wildly jubilant All Bad vocally objects to the reckless destruction of the natural landscape and ever-eroding line between church and state, while still offering plenty of joy and dance-ready rhythms.
After writing most of the album from the front seat of a tour van, the Fayetteville, AR-based musician took a batch of demos he recorded while snowbound and recovering from Covid to his longtime band (bassist/harmony singer Grant D’Aubin, lead guitarist Jack Studer, drummer Cheech Moosekian) and collectively headed to New Orleans. Hoping to emulate the methods of their first two efforts, Shoulders and the band recorded in a home studio on the banks of the Mississippi River.
Shoulders and the Okay Crawdad have spent a good chunk of the year on the road, including stops at Stagecoach, Nelsonville Music Festival and Pickathon earlier this year. They’re currently wrapping up their Spring/Summer “Best Western” tour, and in October they’ll head back out on their Fall North American “All Bad” tour, which includes shows in Brooklyn, NY, Nashville, TN, Washington, DC, Philadelphia, PA and Atlanta, GA. Tickets for new dates are on sale now, and fans can visit NickShoulders.com for a full list of dates.
Nick Shoulders and the Okay Crawdad 2023 Tour Dates
Aug 24 - Great Falls, MT - The Newberry
Aug 25 - Billings, MT - Pub Station Taproom
Aug 26 - Spearfish, SD - Matthews Opera House & Arts Center
Aug 27 - Mills, WY - The Beacon Club
Aug 30 - Livingston, MT - Pine Creek Lodge
Sept 2 - Teton Village, WY - Mangy Moose
Sept 3 - Salt Lake City, UT - The State Room
Sept 6 - Crested Butte, CO - Public House
Sept 8 - Denver, CO - Bluebird Theater
Sept 9 - Boulder, CO - Fox Theatre
Sept 14 - Kansas City, MO - Knuckleheads
Sept 15 - Fayetteville, AR - George's Majestic Lounge
Sept 19-23 - Nashville, TN - AmericanaFest
Sept 29-30 - Sisters, OR - Sisters Folk Festival
Oct 13 - Knoxville, TN - Bijou Theatre
Oct 14 - Atlanta, GA - Vinyl at Center Stage
Oct 15 - Asheville, NC - The Grey Eagle
Oct 16 - Charlotte, NC - Neighborhood Theatre
Oct 19 - Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle - Back Room
Oct 20 - Washington, DC - Union Stage
Oct 21 - Philadelphia, PA - World Cafe Live
Oct 23 - Brooklyn, NY - Baby’s All Right
Oct 24 - South Burlington, VT - Higher Ground Showcase Lounge
Oct 25 - Somerville, MA - Arts At The Armory
Oct 27 - Albany, NY - Lark Hall
Oct 28 - Buffalo, NY - Buffalo Iron Works
Oct 29 - Toronto, ON - Horseshoe Tavern
Oct 31 - Cleveland Heights, OH - Grog Shop
Nov 1 - Columbus, Ohio - Skully's
Nov 3 - Newport, KY - The Southgate House Revival - Sanctuary
Nov 4 - Lexington, KY - The Burl
Nov 5 - Nashville, TN - The Basement East
Nov 7 - Louisville, KY - Zanzabar
Nov 8 - Indianapolis, IN - HI-FI Indianapolis
Nov 10 - Ann Arbor, MI - The Ark
Nov 11 - Evanston, IL - SPACE
Nov 12 - Milwaukee, WI - Cactus Club
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Download new press photos here (photo credit Nick Futch)
Download All Bad album cover here
Pre-order/pre-save All Bad here
For more information on Nick Shoulders, please contact Rob Krauser at REK Room Media, rob@rekroommedia.com or 917.703.8361.
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