Anticipation

I’ve just sealed up a ten dollar bill in an envelope addressed to my favourite band. Their website promises that if I send them “10 bucks CDN” I will receive their latest CD, a five track disc consisting of three original songs and two covers. One of the covers is a Tom Waits song. I'm also a fan of his, so this can only be good.

This CD, unlike their other two releases, is only available directly from the band, either at their shows or by mail order. Of course you can download the whole thing on MP3’s, but I’m one of those old fashioned folks who likes to fill my shelves with jewel cases. Their next full length disc is due out in late February, and I’m bouncing up and down, squealing in anticipation of that one too.

So who is this amazing group you ask? You’ll laugh when I tell you. You might even say it’s a reflection of some little oddity in my ego. The band is called Nathan.

I first heard them on the CBC a ways back, and have since fallen in love with their sound.

Nathan is one of those groups that can be filed in half a dozen categories; folk, rock/pop, country, etc. Certainly there are elements of all: pedal steel guitars and banjos playing a two-step on one track, and accordions and a theremin playing circus waltzes the next. The effect is enticing, and blends gorgeously with lyrics full of mixed-up extended metaphors, heartache, mistrust, or pure goofiness.

This excerpt from a review describes the general feel well.

"What is western music? Is it the sound of the wide open plains or a smoky saloon? Tales of taciturn men and long-suffering ladies who cry tears in their beer? Or has that tradition been replaced by something more complicated, where horses have become fast cars and saloons are now strip malls, but even in the most urban setting, there's the restless, rough-and-tumble feel of a frontier town, and everyone still yearns to get the hell out of Dodge sometimes? . . . Nathan captures it all, the modern, old-fashioned sound of the lonesome, crowded west."

I'm not websavy enough to be able to just plug their tunes in here for your enjoyment, but it just so happens the band has one of my favourite tracks available for listening on their blog.

Pop on your headphones, and give "Sunset Chaser" a good listen. www.myspace.com/nathanband The music box control thingy is on the right.

Think to yourself, maybe she has a new lover

She caved right into a big empty hole

Swallowed up a passerby

A brighter, whiter salesman smile

A palm shot out to seal the deal

A greasy hand, a squeaky wheel

Oooooooh tingles!

If you like it, let me know and I'll have you over for coffee and play you my other favourites; The dark and lonely song "Home with Me", innuendo laden"Big Galoot", and just plain pretty "Blue" Or you could just download the MP3s. Heck, just go ahead and download them, and if you don't like them, I'll pay you back the 99 cents.

The band being called Nathan does make me wonder if the music might effect me more personally than it would otherwise. I remember the old days of making mix tapes (and eventually CDs) for friends based on the "soundtrack of my life" concept, and the quirky, honest music Nathan creates fits that idea for me. I also must confess I've got a soft spot for a well played steel guitar, Dobro, or mandolin, and I suspect if you plucked one of my heart strings, much to my mother's shame, it might just sound like a banjo.