Needles & Grooves AoTM /// Vol. 3 - September 2019 /// Nicole Atkins - Goodnight, Rhonda Lee

Dammit. I didn’t mean to post yet...

Lol.

anyhow, I’m fairly certain that I had listened to Goodnight Rhonda Lee way back in 2017. However, I listen to a lot of new music all the time. I love to check out what you all recommend and see what weirdness my listening habits cause the Spotify algorithms to cook up and I scout the new releases every week. So sometimes things get lost in the shuffle. That’s what happened to Rhonda Lee. Mostly because it(and this new record Italian Ice) require multiple listens. Not because they are a nut to crack but because you need to live with them. Goodnight Rhonda Lee was backed by a powerful personal journey and had a singular sound, it worked as an album. It also became a good friend in repeated listens and will be a mainstay record for many years to come. However, I didn’t dive into Atkins’ back catalog. Bot because I don’t want to but because that album required my attention and it wouldn't be fair to divert my attention from it.

When Italian Ice was announced it felt right to move on. It was time, I wanted more. However, the first listen ... while the record and songs are great... was a little underwhelming. I know that sounds like a bad thing and honestly, it was a little disconcerting. I couldn’t really put my finger on it.... so back to the video I prematurely posted above. Listening to how she came to the collaborations on it, but also just the story of her memories of youth on the Jersey Shore and the feel of the boardwalk. The melting pot of music of edgier from New York, Soul from Philly and the crooner stuff her parents listened to. Also repeated listens (on the third listen now. And it’s starting to gel. One of the big factors was understanding... again GRL has a strong narrative and cohesiveness. This is more disparate but now it clicks, instead of it being a solid album with a narrative thread, it’s more akin to a well programmed radio show. It’s all kin to each other but different and it works well together and there is no reason to change anything about, it’s different and different is not a bad thing, in fact it can be a great thing.

The thing that I’m finding most interesting at this moment is that it very much inhabits what you think of as Muscle Shoals music but it’s not just a rehash or attempt at capturing what happened with Aretha or Sledge, it recognizes its own character and is stronger for it. It’s a brave different album and I look forward to becoming its friend and then maybe getting to know those older friends I haven’t met yet.
 
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Teeeee said:
I feel like the first song i already knew (so she had released it). So the 2nd song was new to me in that moment. I stopped what i was doing and went, "Holy shit this is good."
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This was a lie. Lol

The first song, Am Gold, was one that immediately struck me. And the song that made me stop what I was doing was not the second song. It was actually A Road to Nowhere.

I'm bad at song names, let me live my life!!
 
Saw Nicole open for JD Mcpherson a few years back when Rhonda was first released. She did a quick meet and greet after her show. Very gracious lady. I loved Rhonda, but Italian Ice takes her to a new level IMO. It's always nice when you have a specific personal memory come to mind with a musician, and then you see the musician create something beautiful. You automatically feel a connection to the music, making the experience more tangible, more accessible to you.
 
gaporter said:
I had a signed, red copy of Italian Ice from Grimey's in my cart to buy and didn't realize they didn't tell you something was out of stock until you tried to check out -_- having to do all your vinyl shopping online really just is not worth it sometimes
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Please ignore my bitching everyone. 2020 is not the year to feel sorry for myself over trivial bs. A black copy will do just fine :)
 
@Rip_City and I went to the show tonight in Portland! Nicole sounded amazing and made me realize that I haven’t been turning up the volume loud enough when I listen to her albums haha. We got to talk to her after the show and she was kind enough to sign our LPs. It was funny because we were waiting for quite a while inside the venue hoping to meet her and then eventually just gave up and went outside and ………she was just standing out there on the sidewalk talking to a couple fans haha.
 
Ericj32 said:
@Rip_City and I went to the show tonight in Portland! Nicole sounded amazing and made me realize that I haven’t been turning up the volume loud enough when I listen to her albums haha. We got to talk to her after the show and she was kind enough to sign our LPs. It was funny because we were waiting for quite a while inside the venue hoping to meet her and then eventually just gave up and went outside and ………she was just standing out there on the sidewalk talking to a couple fans haha.
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Glad you guys caught up, but did you run into @GritNGlitter? She had my tickets as I ended up at another show that friends drug me to.
 
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