One of the great things about reviewing new music every day is that you bump into old friends from time to time. Well, actually, I’ve never met the man who takes the stage under the name Nelson King, but I have written about his music often enough over the years that he feels like an old friend, and his music turning up in the review pile is undoubtedly something that brightens the day.
Here, as a teaser and taste of his album to follow, Given, out on 1st April (and that’s no joke), he offers us two live videos of what to expect. Or at least versions of the songs in their unadorned, non-studio, one man, one voice, one guitar format. A format that he seems to thrive in.
Hold On shows just why he is so good as a live solo player, moving between picked notes and strummed chords, delicate riffs and full-on cascades of strings effortlessly as the song requires, an ebb and flow of sonic tides, as it were. Vocally, he offers comfort, support and reassurance, a song of intimacy, personal yet entirely relatable.
Illusion runs on a more rock groove, and even though he is just one man on that stage, he manages to keep rhythms full-on and forthcoming whilst chiming riffs skitter across the top. The great thing about such a song is that having explored Nelson’s music from its most understated and bare to his more ornate creations, even through this is a solo performance, I can hear many other musical elements and instrumental arrangements seemingly hanging over the song.
They say that a good song still works when played on just an acoustic guitar. What is so noticeable about Nelson King’s music is that even if when Given arrives and we find these two songs layered up and added to, explored, evolved, developed, even delivered as if a full band were driving them, such live performances show that even in their most straightforward forms, his songs stand on their on to feet. And that isn’t something every musician can say about their work.
