Nellie McKay

The day I read the article that noted the common logic “Jane’s Addiction was the heir apparent to Led Zeppelin’s throne more than any of those banana-haired English rock bands ever could hope to be.”

I remember taking a step back from the item-to-item comparisons that had bogged down a lot of my rationale at the time and thinking I’d spent too much time looking at the wrong thing when I listened to music.

That being said, imagine the Moses-like sojourn a man must have taken, hearing Zeppelin scorch across the radio in his 20’s and not hearing anything as close to powerful for another ~20 years.

I write this because from where I sit I’ve found the very thing so many have traveled for years looking for. It’s no secret that I’ve found the musician of a life time when I heard Tom Waits, when I’d first heard his music I felt like someone finally got me. I wasn’t a drunk, or a circus employee. I hadn’t been to Singapore and I’d never lived in the Midwest or South but still I felt I was one here, I knew Waits in a second, and in a second I felt like it was ok to be what I was. I don’t think it was any great coming out, but prior to this I’d been unsure of my place in things. Waits put beauty and august reverence into the eccentric.

I’ve been orbiting the music of Nellie McKay for a couple of years now, but in recent months I’ve been thinking she is the heir to the Waitsian throne for all the unheard reasons. Their music sounds nothing alike, their stories are dissimilar, and the ethos of one does not suit the other. Still it’s easy to see a beauty in the commonality of a search for the organic.

If the two artists have anything in common, it might be that no sound is off limits, that every noise is worth its existence and that genre is something “those people” say. I’ve grown exhausted listening for the mandolin’s sprint, the clockwork of the upright bass’s pluck, or the nervous shiver of the bowed violin, the days of breaking down music for me are few and far between when I need to be academic to write something communicative. But mostly I take in the massive banquet of theory, and the orgy of influence that comes from both artist, who have never placed limits on themselves to be commercially successful, they know their base, and therein they will have complete immunity.

And in the end that’s the difference, the knowledge that a fan base is intelligent and is willing to engage in anything that warrants their time, that piques their interests, that conjures visions of a brand new highway.

To many waits fans who long ago left the mission statement behind for anyone in a baggy suit or an inherently off-putting voice (I’m looking at you Joanna Newsom fans), I’m sure McKay is all too many things that they find unappealing, but like every Zep fan who thought Foreigner was the second coming, and that jane’s addiction were a collection of pansy’s with bad vocals and worse outfits well, its their loss, but to me I’ve found a new pool of future potential, and three discs worth of mesmerizing sonic vats that I can spend the next 6 months bathing in. I plan to review with a fine tooth comb the works of Nellie McKay and produce them here.

I’m adamant that with only a few listens you’ll understand my fervor, and I think you’ll understand why I am not only a fan, but a man on a mission to expose a waiting and unconscious unwashed mass of something as great as music might have ever produced.

I hope that I’ve inspired one of you with this. If not, well the discography is on the way…

All the Best,
Brow