Deeply human songs with indie sensibilities and shades of bluegrass.
This is Lorelei is the moniker used by singer-songwriter Nate Amos. He’s also in the experimental, indie pop band Water from Your Eyes, where he plays guitar and produces music alongside Rachel Brown. He’s a prolific chap with hundreds of songs on Bandcamp, and The Singer in My Band is far removed from his work with Water from Your Eyes. Clear influences include Elliott Smith, English folk music and bluegrass, thanks to his banjo-playing father, Bob, who’s a respected figure in the New England bluegrass scene.
Amos is always working. In the past, he has spoken about developing a growing dependence on substances. However, he’s now 35 years old, clean and sober, and although his creativity may have slowed down slightly, he says that, before touring took over his life, he was recording one or two songs per day. At one point, he felt “Every moment could potentially give birth to a song.” Now he’s more careful and intentional about his writing. He used to approach songwriting as a “go to work and make something” process; now he finds other ways to complete songs.
Amos has a DIY approach to recording with a home studio in his Brooklyn apartment. He feels that this allows him to work quickly. In fact, this album was completed before signing to Matador Records. He has said that he may use a studio and a producer in the future, but he’s currently happy with his current setup. Given the wealth of material at his disposal, it must have taken a fair amount of time to pare it down to the 11 songs on The Singer in My Band.
Album opener I Will Eat My Heart in the Morning features bright guitar and sets the warm, melodic tone for the folk- and Americana-oriented sound that runs throughout the record. It’s a tender but upbeat start. The excellent riff-laden Billy Came Back is what The Smiths would have sounded like if they played Americana. It’s a wonderful, jaunty tune about a karaoke singer, Billy, whose emotional investment in the song makes his singing so affecting. It’s followed by the more country-influenced Watching Heaven Fall. The title track, The Singer in My Band, has a strong bluegrass feel, with Amos’s father contributing banjo. It is another upbeat song about a musician’s escapades on the road, including a woman with “a suitcase full of crystal and her pistol in her hand.”
The short but beautifully executed instrumental Nitro sounds like an old English folk tune that could have been recorded by Martin Carthy in the early 1960s, during the English folk revival. It segues straight into Sarah Is It Gonna Rain Forever, which shares the same underlying guitar riff. Amos has stated that the melody for these two songs has been around for four or five years. They certainly share some of their sonic DNA with the second English folk revival and rapid finger-picking guitarists such as John Renbourn and Bert Jansch. Sarah is it Gonna Rain Forever is partly an ode to his sister Sarah, who also sings on the track, reflecting on their shared path and future.
The Kid with the Crown recalls Elliott Smith’s gift for pairing melodic sweetness with emotional unease, while also hinting at the power-pop instincts of Big Star and the songwriting of Wilco. And I Haven’t Seen My Love in Quite a While draws on the musical tradition associated with Amos’s father and his upbringing in Vermont. Album closer, Don’t You Cry in Lonesomeness, is downbeat but touching, featuring just Amos and a guitar. The Singer in My Band ultimately succeeds because, for all its influences, it reflects the vision of an exceptional artist who is entirely comfortable in his own skin and blends the old with the new.
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