Nane

One Liner: Local soulful rock action that reminds me of Alabama Shakes

Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but indie rock soul?  Alternative soul rock?
Home: Austin!

Poster Position: 20
Friday of Weekend One at 1pm on the Lady Bird Stage.

Sunday of Weekend Two at Noon on the Miller Lite Stage.

Thoughts:  I have grown weary of the bottom levels of the daily lineup poster, where it looks like every single artist is going to be some sort of world music that I won't understand. Between Nane and Saleka and Daydream Masi and etc. etc. etc. I just long for a name down here that clearly tells me what I am about to hear and that thing is something I want to hear.

And then, I fired up these guys, and it's awesome.  Nane is an Armenian mother goddess, according to Wikipedia.  I have no clue if that is where their name came from, but this is a band of two guys from the University of Texas who put together a lineup featuring people who also perform with Dayglow and the Black Pumas.  Austin musical royalty right now.  The music is kinda soul, but kinda indie rock as well.  It's a great sound - powerfully voiced and righteously instrumented.  Seems sacrilegious to do, but I'd compare it to Alabama Shakes?  I'm not trying to compare this singer dude to Brittany Howard by any stretch, but the combo of soul and rock is similar.  I feel some kinship to Black Pumas on here as well.  The funkiness and soul of these tunes brings them to mind.

Check their top single.  They only have one album - 2020's Nane - and the lead single from it currently has 1.6 million streams.  I figured it might have been a Willie cover when I first clicked on it, but this is its own thing.  "Always on my Mind."

You hear that Brittany Howard thing?  I know you do.  That initial falsetto sounds 100% like Brittany Howard over the top of the Shakes.  The soaring chorus too!  Right?  And then the band kicks in about two and a half minutes in?  That song jams.  Also, I think our Prom might have been in that same building.  Didn't the foyer at the end look like the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs building on West Campus?

The lead singer is Daniel Sahad.  He grew up in Amarillo as the son of Dominican immigrants, and came to UT in Austin for the pre-med program.  While here, he started jamming with Ian Green, who was also at UT, but studying guitar at the school of music.  They started working on the band in earnest in 2016, and were just getting ready for a big tour to kick off their thing when the pandemic hit.  By the way, Nane is apparently a term of endearment in the Dominican Republic. So that is where the name comes from.

Their second-most streamed is "Blue Velvet."  I wanted to give you third place with "This I Know," but there is no video for that tune.  So here is "Blue Velvet," which was apparently their entry to the Tiny Desk concert contest.  198k streams.

Kinda sounds like Prince doing his thing once the singing kicks in.  The groove at the start is good stuff.  Daniel is kinda jacked - like I wouldn't expect a dude with guns to have that range in his voice, but here he is bouncing off the walls with that malleable voice.  Look at the TV behind them in the laundromat - it's playing the video to "Always on My Mind."  "Much Too Much" has a rap-ish funkiness that rules.  Kind of a Anderson.Paak with a rock band vibe.  

These guys seem like a really good time, and a good future Austin success story that we can get behind right now before they blow up into fame.  I'd definitely go check them out.  Hell, I'd go see them downtown right now.