Jeb Loy Nichols earns his reputation as “Renaissance Man” this year alone with accomplishments in multiple arts. On the U.S. tour promoting his recent CD, “Days Are Mighty,” he revisits the eclectic mix of bluegrass, funk and reggae that captured his fancy in his native Missouri.
“I grew up listening to Merle Haggard, Bobby Womack, Bill Withers and Willie Nelson, people whose work always pushes its way into my heart,” he says. “That’s why I wanted this to sound like a homemade record sitting around and talking. All records are conversations and this is a conversation between myself and three or four close friends. It’s intimate and done in the same kind of small setting that suits artists like Betty Carter, Nat King Cole and Abbey Lincoln.”
At 17, Nichols moved from mid-America to New York to study painting at Parsons School of Design on full scholarship. There he became involved in hip-hop, rap and a whole new world of music that led him to London. He soon put together The Fellow Travelers, a country band that included his wife, Loraine Morley. They settled nicely into the British scene with four popular albums.
During the two decades he has made his home in the United Kingdom, Nichols has acquired a fetching British accent that sparks his performances there and throughout Europe. Still, his soul is never far from bluegrass and the pull of country life. After many years in London and three successful solo records, he and his wife acquired ten acres in rural Wales complete with a large garden and a comfortable barn they turned into a home.
“The advantage in living there is the sense of quiet and slowness,” he says. “I loved the excitement of being in New York when I was young and later in London, but I began to crave what I grew up with. This area translates to art and music in unconscious ways. For instance, I write a lot of my songs while I walk.”
His creative juices stirred, this year he completed “I Need You To Tell Me Something Different,” a book of drawings that earns rave reviews for its abstract glance at life in Wales. His next recording, a departure to jazz, was almost totally improvised on the spot. It is due out in October shortly before the publication of “The Untogether,” his first novel. The critical acclaimed “Days Are Mighty” is the proverbial icing on the cake.
“My book is about the collaboration between a young man, his dying father, and his father’s nurse,” he says. “I wrote it not so much for the story as for the flow of words and events. I want readers to discover my voice in its pages, just as I want audiences to approach my music with a sense of engagement and communication.”
(If you go: Jeb Loy Nichols performs music from his latest solo recording, “Days Are Mighty”; 8 p.m. Sept. 8; Jammin’ Java; 227 Maple St. E, Vienna; $15; 703-255-1566, ext. 8; [email protected])
