By ERIC SCHELKOPF
His soulful vocals and introspective lyrics grab your attention right away.
After playing last August at The Venue's Americana Music Fest, Chicago singer-songwriter Nathan Graham will return to The Venue on Aug. 19 as part of a show with Alice Wallace, who in 2017 was named the female vocalist of the year at the California Country Awards.
The show starts at 8 p.m. and tickets are available at The Venue's website, themusicvenue.org. The Venue is located at 21 S. Broadway Ave. in downtown Aurora.
Graham's debut album, "Saint of Second Chances," is set for release on Oct. 20 on Chicago-based Pravda Records. He performed several of the songs off the album during his show last August.
I had the chance to talk to him about the new album.
Q – Of course, your debut album is being released on Pravda Records, which is one of Chicago's longest running independent record labels. Are you pretty happy about that?
I am, yeah. We tried to do everything in Chicago.
Everything was kind of done with Chicago artists, photographers, and the people who did the mixing and mastering and all that stuff. You don't see a lot of Americana records or even records period being made in Chicago any more, let alone being promoted by a Chicago-based label.
We can still make records here in Chicago. You don't have to outsource to Nashville or Austin.
Q – It does seem like everyone likes to assign a genre to an artist. Is it hard for you to describe your music to people? It's not like totally blues, it's not totally soul and it's not totally Americana. It's kind of like a combination of all three.
Yeah, that's the thing. When I listen to Joe Cocker or Nathaniel Rateliff, I think that's kind of the true Americana. Because I think it's a blending of all that music.
My opinion of Americana music is that it connects blues, gospel, rock and country. I think that this album does that in kind of a really cool way.
And I'm proud of that. I think I would describe it as Americana and soul music. That's really what it is.
Q – And it seems like there is a meaning behind the album's title. Is there?
It's really about those times in your life when you kind of screwed up. And your friends still ride with you.
They tell you that it's alright, that you're going to bump your head a lot of times in life and do things that you aren't necessarily proud of, but that there's a way back. There's a way back to yourself, there's a way back to loving yourself and other people and allow people to love you.
That's kind of what it's about.
Q – It seems like you really want to connect with people through your songs and through shared experiences. Is that what you're hoping your music does, to show people that you're not in this alone?
I think that's why people listen to music and consume art and go see movies and plays and things like that.
We all have happy joyous times and we all have really low times. And it's nice to know that you're not the only person going through this.
All the music that I've ever listened to has definitely made me feel less alone.
Q – What was you vision for the album and did the finished product fulfill your vision?
Yeah, it did actually. One of my favorite albums is Joe Cocker's "Mad Dogs & Englishmen."
I love that album so much. It's kind of like that whole album tells a story.
You can hear all the instruments and everything has its place. And all the voices have their place and nothing really gets lost.
It kind of exceeded my expectations. I thought it was going to sound one way and it came out sounding way better than I ever imagined.
Q – I was reading a little about your background and I understand you started out backing blues singers at Buddy Guy’s Legends and Kingston Mines. Who did you you perform with and what did the experience teach you?
It taught me that less is more a lot of times. When I first started playing music, I loved pedals and effects.
I had this giant pedal board. And I remember being at a club and I'm watching these legends of blues music and they're expressing so much more out of so little.
They have their guitar and their voice. Sometimes they would just have an acoustic guitar and their voice.
Same thing with songwriting. They would take a simple concept and they would make you feel so good or connect you to them with their story.
And it showed me how to perform and hold a crowd's attention. They pulled the audience into the performance.
Q – Who are some of the people you performed with?
Carl Weathersby and Fernando Jones. I did a small set with Buddy Guy.
In college, I got to play some songs with Koko Taylor, which was amazing.
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