Buffalo Nichols

One Liner: Rootsy bluesman with all the right notes.

Wikipedia Genre: no Wikipedia, but I'll just say Blues and roots
Home: Born in Houston, but raised in Milwaukee.

Poster Position: 18
Both Weekends.  Sunday.

Thoughts:  His real name is Carl Nichols, but I dig the stage name, which is why he is the first band I'm checking out on the poster.  This is super legit.  Listening to these tunes makes me feel like I'm watching Oh Brother Where Art Thou or Justified.  Just feels like I've entered a portal back to a time when a guy would do an entire show or record that sounded like he was pouring his heart out over basic, rootsy instrumentation and his soul.  And he is really good at what he does.  

Now, will there be people who want to see that these days?  No clue.  But there is no way you can deny the fact that his voice and these tunes are spot on perfect for a bluesman revival.  He's signed to the same label as the Black Keys, which also makes sense.

Only one album, 2021's eponymous debut.  The top track is "Lost & Lonesome," with 949k streams on Spotify.

No real videos, no Wikipedia.  You'd think that he could work at the marketing just a little since he's already playing out-of-fashion music. Either way, it is a great song, feels like when Gary Clark Jr. takes off his SRV cape and goes for a rootsy number.  Excellent voice, good lyrics, cool guitar-work.  Checks all the boxes.

"Another Man Done Gone" is an old song - covered many times, even by Johnny Cash.  But Nichols has adjusted the lyrics with "Another Man Gone" to call out issues for the Black Lives Matter era.  It used to just sing about how "they killed another man," but now the lyrics are more modernized for today.  In whatever version, “Another Man Done Gone” was never specific, merely lamenting “they killed another man.” Now we get: “Another woman is dead/Turn signal wasn’t on they locked her up and now she’s gone,” (referencing Sandra Bland, probably) or “No need to hide behind a white hood/When a badge works just as good.”

I'd go see this.  We'll see what the schedule ends up looking like, but this feels like a real talent who could be at the start of a cool career.