Black Rooster is the new single from Wales-based Wyoming-born songsmith Jeb Loy Nichols. It’s taken from his forthcoming new album June Is Short, July Is Long, out this week on July 5 via Compass Records, in association with Proper Records. It was recorded in Wales with his band, The Westwood All-Stars. Like his 2017 critically acclaimed Country Hustle, I think we’re going to be in for a treat.
Jeb shared the following on Black Rooster:
“Black Rooster started life on the Welsh back roads where I live. I’m not sure what it’s all about, but then I think that about most things. I’d gone for a drive and I was thinking about something I’d read that morning, a Buddhist quote that said: Nothing is as it seems. Neither is it the opposite.
“That seemed to sum up my life in the hills. A place of wildness, of mistakes, of attempts, of almost. A place of endless digressions. That morning I’d come upon a rooster that refused to leave the middle of the road. We had a standoff that ended with me turning around and taking another route. I admired that rooster and began writing the song then. I had the words mostly finished by the time I got home. It came alive in the studio when we started to play a groove and I remembered the Black Rooster. We cut it one take.
“That’s how it goes up here in the hills, you go out for a drive and the last thing you thought might happen is exactly what happens.”
Jeb Loy Nichols is an artist who may have a sound steeped in his country and folk origins, but has never allowed genre to be a boundary to his creativity. As a result, his latest record takes his core sound and once again marries it with a wonderful spectrum of sounds.
“Just keep it simple,” says Jeb Loy Nichols, the Wyoming-born artist and songsmith who’s been putting out his own singular brand of smoky retro soul for over two decades, gathering a fervent cult following along the way. Having spent brief periods in Missouri, Texas, New York and London, Nichols found his home in a remote smallholding in the Welsh hills in the ‘80s. This back-to-basics, rural lifestyle is mirrored in his approach to music and the art that graces his album covers and informs his videos. His eleventh solo release, JUNE IS SHORT, JULY IS LONG, is a cross-genre release that documents his journey from being born and raised in the American Midwest through to his current life in the rolling hills of rural Wales. “It’s full circle,” he says. “I started off in the Ozark hills and now here I am, in the hills again.”
“I lived in London, I lived in New York. I moved here [Wales] to not be there [USA],” Nichols explains. “I came here so I could make a certain kind of art and music, so I could write a certain kind of book.” While his early life experiences have all contributed and shaped his artistry, he was aware that his life choices and setting also acted as a large influence.
“If I lived there I would write about there, and there’s too much written about there already. I didn’t want to be rich or successful or fulfilled or content or admired or loved. I wanted to be here. I wanted to be cold and not cold and lonely and not lonely, happy and not happy.”
His new music is a record of that journey. Raised on bluegrass and country & western, he discovered southern soul when he was a teenager. Then it was off to New York and hip-hop, then London and reggae and dancehall. It was this potent mix of genres – his love of classic American roots music and Jamaican reggae, dub and dancehall, that’s since been his signature. He’s spent the past 25 years making music, of which he smiles and says, “It’s all roots music. Three chords and a good story. Don’t overthink it. Just get in the groove and let it happen.”
JUNE IS SHORT, JULY IS LONG was recorded in Wales with his touring band, The Westwood All-Stars, for an organic, capturing-a-moment feel. “It was all done in five days,” he explains of the album sessions. “ One day setting up, one day learning the songs, three days recording… it was great. The best music is a conversation, and this was a conversation between old friends.”
The resulting “musical conversation” has the lived-in, comfortable feel of a classic. It could sit comfortably alongside vintage albums by Ry Cooder or Van Morrison with its stripped down, real deal mix of joy and pain. “If you keep it simple,” he says, “there’s less to go wrong.” The resulting collection of songs proves his point. “You take a little country, some soul, some old friends and few good stories, and what can go wrong?”
Having established his pinpoint on the musical map in ‘90s trio The Fellow Travellers, Nichols has found himself praised from all corners of the musical world for his consistently stunning solo releases. With JUNE IS SHORT, JULY IS LONG, he has added another gem to his musical crown.
“I wanted to make the kind of record I grew up with,” Nichols says. “That meeting place of folk, soul and country.” He looks out across the fields of his Welsh home and says, “the kind of record that feels at home here, that’s rooted in these hills.”
Pre-OrderJune Is Short, July Is Long (Cd/Vinyl) via Amazon | Proper Music
Digital: https://compassrecords.lnk.to/juneisshortjulyislongID
https://www.jebloynichols.co.uk/