Louder Than The Music

Sometimes, when I find music I really like I turn into a crazy campaigning party spokesman for it. Honestly, it's a wonder I'm not pounding the streets with flyers, a megaphone and a placard. I just have to tell everyone I speak to why it’s so awesome, why they need to listen to it and how it will make their life better - because it undoubtedly will. Ever since I first heard Nathan Lee's music I have been deafening the ear of anyone who will listen to me (and even those who try not to, to be honest).

The Louder Than The Music boys of course were my first victims. Two reviews and a lot of nagging later, here we are at LTTM's Nathan Lee week! The boys made the mistake of asking me to write the blog for it so what better opportunity to present a party musical broadcast on behalf of the Unofficial Nathan Lee Music party!

Here’s what you need to know

1, the history

Nathan moved to Nashville 15 years ago while in a band with his older brother. He flirted with music between establishing his own art business and working with World Vision before realising where his true place was. He gave it all up and decided to give everything he had to pursuing music.

Several residencies around Nashville and accompanying live albums later he was signed by a start-up record company for the release of 2009's Risk Everything. Within two months of its release, the company went bust (they didn't like album track, High Speed Low Drag - with shocking taste like that, what did they expect?!) but Nathan kept going and is now back with his new album, Bar Room Hymns.

2, the dude’s talented.

Seriously - I challenge you to listen to any of his tracks and come away thinking different. His deep, soulful voice, which he describes as being the product of his time spent playing bar rooms, has been compared to Springsteen (ask your parents - I did (ok, no I didn’t - but that’s more because of my weird musical knowledge than my age!)). On stage he swings his piano (figuratively - although it could be an interesting avenue to explore) between rocking anthems challenging people to try to stop him and softer, atmospheric tunes partnered perfectly with tales of utter trust and dependency.

3, he makes good music

A bi-product of number 2 for sure, but important just the same. Take away his motivation, his passion, his need to speak to the broken and you still have great music and great music should be heard: if someone has the guts to pour their heart out, create something beautiful and share it with the world - I’m behind them with my megaphone.

Nathan was described in one of his early EPK’s as being a poet and I don’t think many songwriters can claim that these days. For the most part, and I speak from experience, it comes down to finding something that fits and could possibly make sense (answers on a postcard as to why I’m not a successful songwriter). Listen to Nathan’s music and you can’t help but think that the writing process was more than finding a rhyme or the right number of syllables for a piece of music: it’s about the message and the beauty that can be found within the pain.

4, he keeps it real

F’real! (Yeah, even if I was American I couldn’t pull that off) Nathan says that his heartbeat is singing songs of hope for broken people. How does he do that? Well, this last year alone has seen him play in prisons and on a two week tour of army bases in Iraq. It’s all glamour in the music biz isn’t it? No - but that’s not what it’s about. He takes his music where it counts and where there is the maximum need for God to speak through it. It may not be glamorous but it is necessary.

I’ve no doubt that he could make a living pulling residencies around Nashville but that’s not the point. The point is taking it where it needs to be heard - it’s not the healthy that need a doctor after all. I know little about Nathan as a person, but hearing him perform you can tell he lives in every song he’s written. He lives it, gives it a melody, wraps it up in lyrical beauty and takes it where it needs to go.

5, Want some vintage Nathan Lee? Of course you do...

Obviously, Bar Room Hymns is going to be a great place to start but if you want to dig into his previous releases you can check out samples on his MySpace or watch some live performances on YouTube but my personal recommendations would be:

From Down At The Rutledge - try Wrecking Ball for some up-tempo rocking awesomeness or Broke and Hollow Man for some epic soul-filled awesomeness.

From West Tisbury - Rescue Me is definitely worth a listen, absolutely stunning performance and beautiful lyrics or El Diablo Y’ El Angel or High Speed Low Drag.

From Risk Everything - High Speed Low Drag is a winner for me on here too, Open Road (which you can currently stream on his homepage) is great, Wrecking Ball is a killer track, and I’m going to stop now otherwise I’ll name the whole album.

And that, friends, country-men and readers of LouderThanTheMusic.com, is why you need to listen to Nathan Lee’s music.

Give it a play to hear the awesome musicality and then press play again to let the beauty sink in.

You’ll thank me later.

Suzanne