NICOLE ATKINS Italian Ice SINGLE LOCK
TO describe Nicole Atkins as a woman out of time is in no way a criticism. She’s always spoken with love and admiration for classic soul, pop and rock, while her own music draws especially from the ’50s and ’60s. Indeed, covering songs by the likes of Harold Arlen and Marie Queenie Lyons points to a commitment that’s deeply felt, not driven by trends. But although her natural habitat is the past, it’s in a state of constant development, more a vehicle for her own ideas than a hallowed site of worship.
The New Jersey singer-songwriter and guitarist, who now lives in Nashville, bedded into the evergreen greats early. She was introduced to thealbum, and as a young teenager was turned on to Traffic when an uncle convinced her to buy instead of a New Kids On The Block tape. She taught herself guitar at 13. Much later, there was a move to Charlotte, where she dug into the local indie-rock scene, and then a spell as an open-mic regular at NYC’s storied SideWalk Cafe. It was while she was back in North Carolina that Atkins started to develop her own style and in 2006 released her “Bleeding Diamonds” EP, a mix of Brill Building pop, torch song and alt.country balladry. After expanding into blues, psych-rock and prog with 2011’s and then into synth-pumped pop with , she fixed on emotionally candid country soul for 2017’s . Now comes , its title a reference to the frozen treat sold on the Jersey Shore boardwalk of Atkins’ childhood.
