Nathaniel Rateliff
Since releasing his album In Memory of Loss in March, Denver-born Nathaniel Rateliff has caused some ripples our side of the pond, with complimentary reviews but no real commercial rewards.
Now, with a new single and four UK tour dates, he’s hoping to gain a few more fans. And they’d be well deserved.
You Should’ve Seen The Other Guy is a poetic ode to Rateliff’s bootlegger great grandfather who made moonshine during the American prohibition and who, walking home drunk one night, decided to sleep under a tree.
Not realising how cold it was, he froze to death, which suggests there wasn’t much ‘decision making’ in sleeping under the tree in the first place. Nonetheless, the track is a sweet expression of homage laced with folksy sensibilities that are unquestionably genuine rather than an attempt to make a quick buck off the back of the post-Mumford movement.
Comparisons to Johnny Cash are in no way vague, give Rateliff a good session on the moonshine himself and a fair few smokes and he’d match the gravelly tones that would fit so naturally with his simple strings and harmonica.
Themes of melancholy are something else he has in common with the late Mr. Cash, with You Should’ve Seen The Other Guy offering a good representation of an album about longing and loss.
Mon 23rd Oxford, Jericho Tavern
Tue 24th Manchester, Dulcimer
Wed 25th Brighton, Communion at the Hope
Thu 26th London, Borderline
Verdict: 4/5
FemaleFirst Antonia Charlesworth