The tattooed, mulleted, and mustachioed Ozark country crooner Nick Shoulder is an extremely gifted, singer/songwriter, yodeler, whistler, and performer who follows-up his excellent 2019 Okay, Crawdad release with Home on the Rage – an album he wrote in the Ouachita Mountain region, ricocheting back and forth between his uncle’s cabin and a camper. Shoulders grew-up being heavily influenced by Southern Baptist gospel music, and is hesitant to call his music “country” – his preference is “grandpa music.” To quote the artist, “Sure, I draw from honky-tonk and traditional country heavily….But the real core of everything is that sort of generational tangent that I carry with my voice from so many different parts of my family, and that’s more important to me than claiming it’s country music.” Shoulders has a timeless quality to his timbre and phrasing that works beautifully with old songs, drawing comparisons to such legends like Slim Whitman and Jimmie Rodgers. Home on the Rage is more stripped-back than his first two albums, leaving behind the full-band sound for a darker and more lonesome affair. On Home on the Rage, Shoulders explores his heritage with a 12-song collection of songs ranging from a limerick praising the night creatures of the Southern woodlands; a tune about a longing for the Mississippi River; a cover of Depression-era Buell Kazee banjo song; and an intimate, guitar ballad of homesickness. Album highlights include: the noir opening track “Turn on the Dark”; the socio/political title-track; the environmental focused ditty “Booger County Blues”; the cover of the Jimmie Rodgers tune “Miss The Mississippi and You”; a modified version of The Binkley Brother Dixie Clodhoppers’ tune “Rise When the Rooster Crows”; and a reimagined version of the traditional tune “New Dying Soldier.” Nick Shoulders is a young one-of-a-kind musician who is very talented and deserves a lot more attention. Be sure to go see him live (when safe to do so) and check out his other excellent releases Okay, Crawdad and Lonely Like Me as well. – Written by JFelton
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