In August I was rehearsing with my band at a rehearsal studio on the west side of midtown Manhattan. We were getting set up and I needed some help with microphones so I went down the hall to the main desk to ask someone to come by the studio. As I was walking down the hall I passed three guys on their way out of the studio. One of them looked familiar. He was a little on the short side with salt and pepper hair kind of standing straight up. I stopped him and said, “Excuse me but are you Willie Nile?” He turned to me and said yes he was. I told him it was great to meet him and that I was a fan of his music. We chatted for a minute. He and his bandmates were playing in New York City later in the fall[1].
One of the great things about New York City is the occasional celebrity sighting[2]. Willie Nile is a New York-based musician who had a couple of really cool albums in the early eighties before legal troubles derailed his career but more about this later.
I was sort of excited about meeting Nile. I mentioned it to my bandmates when I got back to the studio and was greeted with quizzical looks. Who? I said, “You know, Vagabond Moon?” Still nothing so I let it go. Now the back-story here is that I never really owned a Willie Nile album but had taped his first two albums from a friend. So somebody had turned me on to Nile, I just couldn’t remember who it was.
When I got home later I texted my friend, who I grew up with, about my meeting Willie Nile. Again, who? I said “Didn’t I borrow these albums from you?” No. Next I tried friend #2. Good college buddy. We were in a band together and shared our love of music. It had to be him. Guess who I met? Response: Sounds vaguely familiar. Clearly not him. Who loaned me these albums? I suspended my search and started thinking about the career of Willie Nile.
Nile broke on the scene in 1980 with his debut “Vagabond Moon”. The title track was an FM hit. Another track from that album that was a personal favorite was “It’s All Over”. It was a jangly sound with Nile’s cracked tenor laid over the top. He quickly followed this album with “Golden Down”. I don’t remember how well it charted but I liked it more than VM especially the title track and, one of the great rock ballads, “Shoulders”.
Then that was it for ten years until Nile reappeared in 1991 with “Places I Have Never Been”. Ten years is an eternity in the music business, even back then. It was a solid album but the momentum had been broken. Grunge was taking over the world in the early nineties and Nile, though still offering up quality music, seemed out of step. Like emerging from a time machine to find a different world. How fragile is the pursuit of success.
Nile continued to record and tour, though on a much smaller scale than his early eighties heyday. Now in his early seventies he is still active on the music scene. You could replace his name, and this story, with many other talented bands or artists who through bad fortune or the whims of the music business never got beyond cult status. Artists like Marti Jones, Elliot Murphy and Graham Parker come to mind. In the end though I continue to enjoy the music of these mostly obscure artists as much as the name brand stars. And if anyone of you loaned me those Willie Nile albums I thank you.
ARTS ROUNDUP
Music – The Black Keys, “El Camino”. I revisited this 2011 album recently. I had forgotten how strong this record was beyond its hits “Lonely Boy” and “Gold On The Ceiling”. Dan Auerbach’s writing and Patrick Carney’s propulsive drumming offering up solid album cuts like “Dead and Gone” and “Sister”. No filler on this one.
Television – “Country Music”. This is the latest Ken Burns PBS series. Burns and his narrator Peter Coyote could make a nine-part series on plumbing compelling television. You don’t have to be a country fan to enjoy this series. The episode on Hank Williams is a fascinating look at this talented and tragic artist. I really liked the Johnny Cash episode too. The quality is high throughout with extended vignettes of performers like George Jones and Tammy Wynette, Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris. Catch the reruns if you missed it.
Books – “Thirteen” by Steve Cavanagh. This is a taut courtroom drama featuring the attorney (and ex-con man) Eddie Flynn who is defending actor Bobby Solomon who is accused of murdering his wife and bodyguard. It looks bad for Bobby. There’s a clever twist lurking almost immediately as the chapters alternate between Flynn’s perspective and that of a guy named Joshua Kane who is trying to get on the jury by any means. Clever stuff.
[1]November 22ndat The Mercury Lounge and November 23rdat Cutting Room.
[2]In 2016 I ran into Nils Lofgren on the Upper East Side. We had about a five minute conversation and he was very gracious and just a nice guy.