Buffalo Nichols, Fat Possum’s first blues signing in nearly 20 years, is set to headline The Southgate House Revival on September 7th in support of his new album The Fatalist, out September 15th via Fat Possum! He announced the LP and shared its lead single: a dusky take on Blind Willie Johnson's original "You're Gonna Need Somebody On Your Bond," and recently released original single “Love Is All.” The follow up to his 2021 self-titled debut LP for Pat Possum, a critically acclaimed record hat earned him his network television debut on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, various major festival performances, and rave coverage via NPR Music (All Songs Considered, Tiny Desk (Home) Concert), Rolling Stone, Guitar World, Texas Monthly, and more. The Fatalist sounds unlike any blues record you're likely to hear in 2023.
On his self-produced second album, Nichols does things with the blues that might catch you off guard. There’s a consideration of the fullness of the sonic stage and the atmospherics of blues music that can only come with a long engagement with electronic music. But this is no gimmicky hybrid or attempt to turn the blues into 21st century music by simply dressing it with skittering hi-hats.
“In a lot of ways I was improvising,” he says, and he leaned on his years of experience as a DIY musician—and the songs themselves—to guide him. “Drum machines are a 50-year-old technology. If the blues hadn’t been hijacked and trapped in amber, I think they naturally would’ve been incorporated.” The drum programming throughout feels like a natural rhythmic vehicle for these songs. “When you pick up a guitar, the first thing you’re gonna play is the blues,” he says. “And when you pick up an 808, you’re gonna start doing trap beats.”
