My kid’s got a hankering for the 1950s radio station
in the car, so that’s all we basically listen to when we’re driving around.
It’s not remotely a stretch to say that NOLA outlaws Nick Shoulders and the
Okay Crawdad would fit on there perfectly, popping up between Johnny Cash and
Merle Haggard tunes, or Elvis and Conway Twitty. In fact, of the seven songs
(three covers) on Lonely Like Me is a
rendition of Elvis’s “Black Star.” If there was a moment to shout “Elvis
lives!,” it would certainly be after hearing this lively rendition (which,
admittedly, doesn’t really sound much like Elvis).
Nick Shoulders ropes the country-and-western tropes
of the era and hogties em to his delightfully agile tenor, which veers into
perfect rugged-trail yodeling at will. (There’s even a track called “Empty
Yodel” highlighting it.) There’s also a bit of whistling. His combo the Okay
Crawdad perfectly encapsulates the style of the time, making Lonely Like Me as timeless as it is
nostalgic. There’s even a great cover of the Stooges’ “No Fun”! At a time when
artists like Orville Peck (whose record I adore) are tapping into this style
and energizing it, Nick Shoulders and the Okay Crawdad certainly stand out.
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