Texan singer-songwriter Israel Nash has announced his new studio album ‘Ozarker’, which will be released in October. Recorded with producer Kevin Ratterman (My Morning Jacket, Strand of Oaks, Ray LaMontagne) at his studio in Los Angeles. He mixed and mastered the album. The first single and the title track ‘Ozarkar’ is out now.
Ozark is a roots song by Israel Nash. But more than that, it is a meditation on love and family, on the beauty and pain that we pass down through generations, on the bonds that bind us in good times and bad. Nash may live in the Texas Hill Country, but he will always be an Ozarker at heart. The son of a Baptist minister and an artist, he moved back to Dripping Springs, Texas, where he built his studio on a ranch and began embracing a more spacious, psychedelic sound that landed somewhere between Neil Young and Pink Floyd. Is. “I was born and raised in small town Missouri,” says Nash. “All the people and stories and music that shaped me come from that part of the country, and I could feel it calling me back on this album.”
The music hearkens back to the country rock that Nash grew up with — Petty, Springsteen, Seger — with big guitars and sweeping melodies and lyrics that are equally cinematic, painting captivating portraits of everyday people fighting for dignity and self. Fighting with honor. “I think the reason that classic heartland rock and roll is so overrated is because it touches on themes that we all feel so deeply: desire, struggle, commitment, escape. As an artist, I’m always more I aspire to touch as many people as possible, and this music has always represented that to me.
Driven to learn more about his ancestors, Israel Nash reached out to his mother, who began filling the pages with memories of generations of Ozarkers. Some of the characters on this new album come directly from Nash’s own family history, others from second-hand stories, but they all share a distinct Midwestern resilience, their hopes and dreams and triumphs and failures treated with great tenderness and empathy. .
When it came time to record, Nash spent ten days in his studio with an all-star band, including Patrick Hallahan of My Morning Jacket on drums, Curtis Roush of Bright Light Social Hour on guitar, Floating Action on bass guitar, Seth Kaufman and longtime friends. Eric Swanson collaborator on pedal steel. The result is a lush wall of sound that feels both vintage and modern, turning 50 years of American roots into a wild sonic vortex.
‘Ozarkar’ will be available from October 20.