New Jersey-born, Nashville-based singer-songwriter Nicole Atkins raised eyebrows with her fully realized 2007 debut, Neptune City. She toured and recorded steadily for a decade since its release, but it’s been six long years since she dropped new music.
The dry spell finally came to an end earlier this year when she released Drama, a collection of roots rock tunes, on the revived Sun Records (yes, the label that famously gave us Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash).
“It did take a really long time, but I feel like it was necessary,” she says in a Zoom call from her Nashville home. She performs at 8 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 22, at the Beachland Ballroom. “I went through a period of making a lot of money during the pandemic and having someone mismanage my money, and I lost it all.”
To get back into the black, she booked a residency for her band, and the first show took place on the day that director David Lynch died.
“His movies and the music he put in his movies were always such a big part of my sound,” she says.
She invited singer-songwriter Chris Isaak, a friend and fellow Nashville transplant, to the gig. His hit “Wicked Game” benefited from inclusion in Lynch’s 1990 film Wild at Heart.
He loved the show and started coming every week.
“On the last night, he was having so much fun. He said, ‘I should sign you to Sun Records,’” says Atkins.
Isaak has a strategic alliance with the historic label as both artist and curator of new projects with his imprint, Wicked Game Records. So he inked a deal with Atkins.
Atkins wanted Pat Sansone (Wilco, the Autumn Defense, Robyn Hitchcock) to produce it, but Sansone was away touring and didn’t have time to do. In the meantime, it took almost a year to get the deal with Wicked Game finalized.
“It was annoying. And then, Pat was free,” Atkins says. “Sometimes, you just have to be patient and then things work out.
Atkins and Sansone refined many of the songs at Sanson’s home studio before going into a proper studio with members of Sheryl Crow’s band. They cut the album in a mere four days.
“Pat was available and the guys from Sherly Crow’s band were available,” says Atkins. “This was not the budgets they were used to, but the music was so fucking good. They heard it and knew that and said they would do it. We did four songs in one day and overdubs and strings the next. Pat has a sense of play that is so wonderful. Sometimes, when I can’t fight for myself, you need someone like that. He’s like my Mickey from Rocky. It was wonderful. You find your people.”
One album highlight, “Trippin’ on Teardrops,” sounds like a girl group song from decades ago.
“I always had that chorus,” says Atkins. “All my song ideas come to me as melodies. I can sing in perfect pitch into my phone and figure it out later. I play guitar and piano, but I don’t write on them. My mind is on fire 24 hours a day because I have ADD. Sometimes, a melody with cut through. That was one of them.”
Isaak himself joins the festivities and makes a guest appearance on “Cue the Symphony.”
“One night on his porch, this storm rolls in and he was bitching about this artist who has way too much money,” Atkins says when asked about the song’s genesis. “This artist has 24 trucks and lights. I said, ‘Here we go.’ It’s my favorite songs I have ever written with him. It reminded me of early Chris Isaak and Roy Orbison. It’s that dream state ballad that is intensely sad and romantic and beautiful.”
The soaring orchestral pop tune “When the Night Falls” really shows off her vocal range.
“That’s another song that came out in two seconds,” Atkins says. “I had these lyrics to this country song and they fit with this melody.”
Atkins is so pleased with how Drama turned out that she plans to play it in its entirety at the Beachland.
“It will be played live as it is, and we will sprinkle in the favorites,” she says. “My best friend Colin from childhood has never given me a solid compliment. It’s not that he’s mean. But he took a walk on the Asbury Boardwalk with my record and ate a 15 milligram gummy and had great headphones. He was live texting the whole time and said, ‘You have to play it from front-to-back.’ His last text was ‘I’m sitting her crying on a bench.’ I was like, ‘Alright, let’s do it.’”
Atkins is quick to add that her show has a rock edge that will keep fans entertained.
“People will enjoy themselves at this show,” she says. “I guarantee it. We’re the bastards of Americana. It’s un-genre-fiable music. We’re not Americana-enough for those fans, but I also don’t understand why they’re not sick of being bored. You won’t be bored at my show. If you are bored at my show, I will personally give you back your money. I will hate you for the rest of your life, but at least it will be honest.”
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