Nikki Lane

One Liner: "First Lady of Outlaw Country"

Wikipedia Genre: Outlaw country, Americana

Home: Nashville (but originally from Greenville, SC)

Poster Position: Small Type 
Saturday.

Thoughts:  Lane came to ACL in 2014, and I actually wrote a review of her back then, among some of my first ever reviews on this blog.  I'll let you read that gem before we look at some more recent things:

"You know what, actually pretty damn good.  Does for old school country women what Amy Winehouse did for old school soul.  Reverb-heavy rockabilly with a slightly modified singing voice.  Most popular song on Spotify is "Gone Gone Gone."  

Love the way the ACL lineups can hide a solid gem 23 lines down in the poster.  Never heard of this girl at all, and yet she is awesome.  That song above was from her first album, but she just released a new one in 2014 that was produced by Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys.  It is an awesome sound - kind of like a Neko Case meets Loretta Lynn thing going on.  Check her out on Spotify and enjoy."

Man, I used to be a man of few words in these reviews!  Her top track on Spotify these days is actually a Lana Del Rey song that she appears on.  Her third most popular track is a Dropkick Murphys tune.  She kind of sounds like a singer on one of the songs from a soundtrack.  Natural Born Killers?  Pulp Fiction?  Her top song is actually from that 2014 album that I mentioned above, All Or Nothin', which was produced by Dan Auerbach.  This is "Right Time," with 10.9 million streams.

That abusive boyfriend kinda looks like Ben Burgess, who is also on this poster.  But yeah, a good little rockabilly kind of tune with her raspy voice leading the way.

She was born in South Carolina, and dropped out of high school before moving to LA and then New York City.  She was apparently doing some fashion design, but then a country musician broke up with her, and that experience inspired her to write.  She moved to Nashville and started churning out the jams.  The comparison discussed on Wikipedia is to Wanda Jackson (and I have to admit she's not on my radar) and she has been referred to as the First Lady of Outlaw Country.  Tight!

2017's Highway Queen has two tunes with more than 5 million streams.  "Send the Sun" tops out at 6.2 million.

There is the one that sounds like the Pulp Fiction song.  What was that song?  There it is - Maria McKee singing "If Love Is a Red Dress (Hang Me in Rags)."  After that album, nothing until this year when Nikki released 2022's Denim & Diamonds.  In my mind, I figured that I had not heard any of these tunes, but to the contrary, the top track is a Black Key-esque burner they've been playing on the radio recently.  "First High" with just over a million streams.

Tight groove in there - I dig it.  And you can almost see boobs!  Woohoo!  Although, now that I read about the album, this was not a Dan Auerbach joint, but was instead produced by Josh Homme of the Queens of the Stone Age.  Who I also think rules!  Nikki has some great taste in collaborators!  "Born Tough" has a drum track that sounds like some recent QOTSA.  I've heard it a few more times - Sun Radio is playing it in Austin - and it makes me want to wreck shit.  Good stuff!

I'd absolutely check her show out.  I would actually just listen to this music, without this festival leading me here.  I'm going to keep her new album in my queue.  Feels like more of a rock show than a traditional country show, which will always appeal to me!