Nat Myers has returned with ’75-71′ today, a blistering blues ode to the Korean-American artist’s Kentucky upbringing. Namechecking the places that helped form him, from Rabbit Hash to Kenton Vale, ’75-71′ is the latest offering from Myers’ upcoming debut album Yellow Peril – produced by Dan Auerbach and out June 23 on Easy Eye Sound.
’75-71′ was recently included as the lead entry in a WNYC retrospective on the contemporary state of the blues, with host John Schaefer comparing the material on Yellow Peril to “the great Delta bluesman” and specifically Charley Patton’s ‘High Water Everywhere’. Patton used ‘High Water Everywhere’ to recount the great Mississippi River flood of 1927 and how African-Americans were left to fend for themselves – not unlike Myers shining a light on the injustice of the AAPI experience during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Watch the ’75-71′ video, directed by Andy Hawkes, here
Pre-order Yellow Peril (out June 23 on Easy Eye Sound) here
Listen to WNYC New Sounds’ piece on Nat Myers and the state of contemporary blues here
On Yellow Peril, Nat Myers explores a passion for the blues that began while the Kentucky musician was immersing himself in the world of American poetry, “it dawned on me that the real epics were being told by these itinerant musicians from the ’30s and ’40s, even before recorded sound. That’s when I did my deep dive into the blues, so I could write my own epic,” Nat recalls.
Yellow Peril finds Myers pulling from a wide range of historical threads while remaining thoroughly modern – using fleet riffs, complex rhythms, and quick tempos to tell tales full of intelligence, soul, contradiction and nuance. Yellow Peril was recorded by Myers with Auerbach, who oversaw sessions for the first time in his own Nashville home (which acts as another instrument on the record), and also finds Myers working with special guests like songwriting luminary Pat McLaughlin (John Prine, Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal) and blues giant Alvin Youngblood Hart. Combining each of these factors, this ten-song debut leans on its creator’s idiosyncrasies to deliver nothing short of an American epic for the post-pandemic age.
YELLOW PERIL TRACKLIST
75-71
Trixin’
Yellow Peril
Ramble No More
Duck N’ Dodge
Roscoe
Misbehavin’ Mama
Heart Like A Scroll
Undertaker Blues
Pray For Rain
