Although born in Houston, guitarist, songwriter and vocalist Buffalo Nichols became a musician in the Baptist churches and dive bars of Milwaukee‘s North end. From those earliest beginnings, his aim was deceptively simple—to take the rich history of the blues and forge it into something contemporary and empowering.
His self-titled debut album, the first solo blues record Fat Possum Records have released in almost twenty years, stays true to this goal. “Part of my intent, making myself more comfortable with this release, is putting more Black stories into the genres of folk and blues,” Nichols explains. “Listening to this record, I want more Black people to hear themselves in this music that is truly theirs.”
Lead single and opening track ‘Lost & Lonesome’ introduces just what this sounds like. Lines of gently detailed acoustic guitar capture the wistful reflection of Nichols’s delivery, rising and falling with his own searching tone. The style has a downbeat charm, marked by the modesty and loneliness of a wanderer cast into another unfamiliar place. But within this mood something else emerges. Some shimmered light playing at the edges. Some hope perhaps, or else just steadfast determination. The sense that the questioning is not futile. The search has an end. A home lies at the end of the road.
Photo by Dustin Cohen