| Nikki Lane — Highway Queen (February 17, 2017) |
Nikki Lane — Highway Queen (February 17, 2017)
⦿►•¬ Boisterous, firecracking outlaw country.
⦿►•¬ Nikki Lane’s remarkably dazzling third album Highway Queen, out February 17, 2017, sees the young Nashville rebel emerge as one of country and rock’s most gifted songwriters. Produced by Lane and fellow singer~songwriter Jonathan Tyler, and recorded in Denton, Texas and Nashville, Tennessee, Highway Queen is an emotional tour~de~force. Blending potent lyrics, unbridled blues guitars and vintage Sixties country~pop swagger, Lane’s new music will resonate as easily with Black Keys and Lana Del Rey fans as those of Neil Young and Tom Petty. 
Birth name: Nicole Lane Frady
Born: October 17, 1983
Location: Greenville, South Carolina ~ Nashville, TN
Album release: February 17, 2017
Record Label: New West Records
Duration:
Tracks:
01 700,000 Rednecks 3:30
02 Highway Queen 3:51
03 Lay You Down 3:58
04 Jackpot 3:33
05 Companion 3:08
06 Big Mouth 3:39
07 Foolish Heart 4:04
08 Send the Sun 2:57
09 Muddy Waters 3:11
10 Forever Lasts Forever 5:06
Credits:
• Producers: Jonathan Tyler and Nikki Lane
• Executive Producer: Lee Foster
• Mixed by: Collin Dupuis at Center For Pleasure Mechanics (Nashville, TN)
• Recorded at Echo Lab (Dallas, TX), Traxidermy (Nashville, TN) and Club Roar (Nashville, TN)
• Mastered by: Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound NYC
• Package Design: Ricardo Alessio
• Cover Photo: Eden Tyler
• A&R: Kim Buie
• Management: Lee Foster for Electric Lady Artist Mgmt.
• Booking: Dave Kaplan
Awards:
• 2015 Americana Music Association Emerging Artist of the Year Nominated
Notes:
⦿►•¬ Growing up in South Carolina, Nikki Lane loved her mom’s Motown records and her dad’s country cassettes, but she’d also sneak to see alt~rock and punk shows. All those influences come through on her new album, All or Nothin’, which was produced by the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach.
Editorial Reviews:
⦿►•¬ Highway Queen starts with the whiskey~soaked restlessness of “700,000 Rednecks,” a rowdy call to action, and ends on the profoundly raw “Forever Lasts Forever,” where Lane belts freely, mourning a failed marriage — the “lighter shade of skin” left behind from her wedding ring. Lane’s journey to heartbreak takes exquisite turns. “Companion” is pure Everly Brothers’ dreaminess (“I would spend a lifetime/ Playing catch you if I can”). Elsewhere, she goes on a Vegas bender on the rollicking “Jackpot,” fights last~call blues (“Foolish Heart”) and tosses off brazen one~liners at a backroom piano (“Big Mouth”). Lane, a Greenville, South Carolina native, is unique songwriter who didn’t take the traditional country artist path. Her backwoods roots are undercut by her chosen career as a fashion entrepreneur (she’s the owner of vintage clothing boutique High Class Hillbilly) who has lived — and been heartbroken in — Los Angeles, New York and Nashville. So it’s no surprise that her music seamlessly crosses musical genres with lyrics steeped in the doomed perseverance only a true dark horse romantic knows. Lane’s rapid rise in music is thanks to the fervent critical acclaim of her debut record Walk of Shame and 2014’s Dan Auerbach~produced All or Nothin’. With Highway Queen, 2017 is poised to be Lane’s major mainstream breakthrough. “I want to be the highway queen,” Lane told Rolling Stone in 2015. “I’m obsessed with trucks, just like every other fucking country singer. But I want to make my own,” she said banging her fists on the table of a chic East Nashville cafe. So as she sings on the title track: place your bets, if you ain’t folding.
Website: https://www.nikkilane.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nikkilanemusic
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nikkilanemusic
Interview by Rachel Eleanor Sutton: http://fault-magazine.com/2011/11/nikki-lane/
Bandcamp: https://nikkilane.bandcamp.com/album/highway-queen
Also:
Dave Simpson, Thursday 16 February 2017 21.15 GMT / Score: ***
⦿►•¬ “Seven hundred thousand rednecks — that’s what it takes to get to the top,” yells Nashville singer Nikki Lane, having calculated exactly where she wants to be. After working with producers including the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, her third album sees her take more control, along with boyfriend Jonathan Tyler, for a boisterous collection of firecracking “outlaw country.” Lane’s fiery, Loretta Lynn/Emmylou Harris~style vocals deliver tales of life on the road, smalltown gossips and female empowerment. She sassily sings of breaking hearts in every town, but Send the Sun alludes to the depressions caused by conducting a relationship via telephone. The beautiful, pedal steel~laden Forever Lasts Forever mourns a failed marriage. It makes for a convincingly personal but still universal portrait. Trading postmodern sheen for a more traditional sound could help attract the support from country radio stations that Lane needs, in a crowded field, to achieve a mainstream breakthrough. But even if not, “There ain’t no one gonna make me stop.” ⦿►•¬ https://www.theguardian.com/
Written By Hal Horowitz // February 14, 2017 // Score: 3.5/5
⦿►•¬ https://americansongwriter.com/2017/02/nikki-lane-highway-queen/
⦿►•¬⦿►•¬⦿►•¬⦿►•¬⦿►•¬⦿►•¬⦿►•¬⦿►•¬⦿►•¬⦿►•¬⦿►•¬
| Nikki Lane — Highway Queen (February 17, 2017) |
⦿►•¬ Boisterous, firecracking outlaw country.
⦿►•¬ Nikki Lane’s remarkably dazzling third album Highway Queen, out February 17, 2017, sees the young Nashville rebel emerge as one of country and rock’s most gifted songwriters. Produced by Lane and fellow singer~songwriter Jonathan Tyler, and recorded in Denton, Texas and Nashville, Tennessee, Highway Queen is an emotional tour~de~force. Blending potent lyrics, unbridled blues guitars and vintage Sixties country~pop swagger, Lane’s new music will resonate as easily with Black Keys and Lana Del Rey fans as those of Neil Young and Tom Petty.
Born: October 17, 1983
Location: Greenville, South Carolina ~ Nashville, TN
Album release: February 17, 2017
Record Label: New West Records
Duration:
Tracks:
01 700,000 Rednecks 3:30
02 Highway Queen 3:51
03 Lay You Down 3:58
04 Jackpot 3:33
05 Companion 3:08
06 Big Mouth 3:39
07 Foolish Heart 4:04
08 Send the Sun 2:57
09 Muddy Waters 3:11
10 Forever Lasts Forever 5:06
• Producers: Jonathan Tyler and Nikki Lane
• Executive Producer: Lee Foster
• Mixed by: Collin Dupuis at Center For Pleasure Mechanics (Nashville, TN)
• Recorded at Echo Lab (Dallas, TX), Traxidermy (Nashville, TN) and Club Roar (Nashville, TN)
• Mastered by: Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound NYC
• Package Design: Ricardo Alessio
• Cover Photo: Eden Tyler
• A&R: Kim Buie
• Management: Lee Foster for Electric Lady Artist Mgmt.
• Booking: Dave Kaplan
Awards:
• 2015 Americana Music Association Emerging Artist of the Year Nominated
Notes:
⦿►•¬ Growing up in South Carolina, Nikki Lane loved her mom’s Motown records and her dad’s country cassettes, but she’d also sneak to see alt~rock and punk shows. All those influences come through on her new album, All or Nothin’, which was produced by the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach.
Editorial Reviews:
⦿►•¬ Highway Queen starts with the whiskey~soaked restlessness of “700,000 Rednecks,” a rowdy call to action, and ends on the profoundly raw “Forever Lasts Forever,” where Lane belts freely, mourning a failed marriage — the “lighter shade of skin” left behind from her wedding ring. Lane’s journey to heartbreak takes exquisite turns. “Companion” is pure Everly Brothers’ dreaminess (“I would spend a lifetime/ Playing catch you if I can”). Elsewhere, she goes on a Vegas bender on the rollicking “Jackpot,” fights last~call blues (“Foolish Heart”) and tosses off brazen one~liners at a backroom piano (“Big Mouth”). Lane, a Greenville, South Carolina native, is unique songwriter who didn’t take the traditional country artist path. Her backwoods roots are undercut by her chosen career as a fashion entrepreneur (she’s the owner of vintage clothing boutique High Class Hillbilly) who has lived — and been heartbroken in — Los Angeles, New York and Nashville. So it’s no surprise that her music seamlessly crosses musical genres with lyrics steeped in the doomed perseverance only a true dark horse romantic knows. Lane’s rapid rise in music is thanks to the fervent critical acclaim of her debut record Walk of Shame and 2014’s Dan Auerbach~produced All or Nothin’. With Highway Queen, 2017 is poised to be Lane’s major mainstream breakthrough. “I want to be the highway queen,” Lane told Rolling Stone in 2015. “I’m obsessed with trucks, just like every other fucking country singer. But I want to make my own,” she said banging her fists on the table of a chic East Nashville cafe. So as she sings on the title track: place your bets, if you ain’t folding.
Website: https://www.nikkilane.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nikkilanemusic
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nikkilanemusic
Interview by Rachel Eleanor Sutton: http://fault-magazine.com/2011/11/nikki-lane/
Bandcamp: https://nikkilane.bandcamp.com/album/highway-queen
Also:
Dave Simpson, Thursday 16 February 2017 21.15 GMT / Score: ***
⦿►•¬ “Seven hundred thousand rednecks — that’s what it takes to get to the top,” yells Nashville singer Nikki Lane, having calculated exactly where she wants to be. After working with producers including the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, her third album sees her take more control, along with boyfriend Jonathan Tyler, for a boisterous collection of firecracking “outlaw country.” Lane’s fiery, Loretta Lynn/Emmylou Harris~style vocals deliver tales of life on the road, smalltown gossips and female empowerment. She sassily sings of breaking hearts in every town, but Send the Sun alludes to the depressions caused by conducting a relationship via telephone. The beautiful, pedal steel~laden Forever Lasts Forever mourns a failed marriage. It makes for a convincingly personal but still universal portrait. Trading postmodern sheen for a more traditional sound could help attract the support from country radio stations that Lane needs, in a crowded field, to achieve a mainstream breakthrough. But even if not, “There ain’t no one gonna make me stop.” ⦿►•¬ https://www.theguardian.com/
Written By Hal Horowitz // February 14, 2017 // Score: 3.5/5
⦿►•¬ https://americansongwriter.com/2017/02/nikki-lane-highway-queen/
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