Nat Myers

All Bad, the latest album from Nick Shoulders, ultimately encapsulates everything that makesShoulders inimitable form of country music so vital: a heady balance of dazzling musicianship and punk defiance, coupled with gritty eccentricity and a generational connection to the roots of the genre. With a singing style inherited from his familys vocal lineage, Nicks songs achieve the rarefeat of imparting difficult truths while inciting a certain joyful abandon, balancing a sound forged by years of hard travel with a heartfelt reverence for the origins of country music. In the spirit of Hazel Dickens and Jimmy Driftwood, the incisive yet wildly jubilant All Bad vocally objects to the recklessdestruction of the natural landscape and development run rampant, while still offering plenty of joyand dance-ready rhythms. Spanning a variety of early country styles, the albums infectiousharmonies shine alongside everything from jangling cajun waltzes to surf-rock infused bluesy balladsall tied together by a voice seemingly out of place in this century, yet ever ready to speak upabout its problems