Nathan Kalish is pleased to announce that his latest effort, Great Big Motel Bed in the Sky, will be released on July 22nd via JTM Music.
A multi-instrumentalist, producer, engineer, and wandering storyteller, Kalish was born in Milwaukee, WI, to missionary parents, who constantly moved the bulk of his formative years. By the time he graduated high school, Kalish had already lived in many different cities across Europe and the USA. By the time Kalish had graduated high school, he had already lived all over the Midwest and Western Europe, and directly after the wall fell in Eastern Europe. He then spent over a decade performing music across both, playing bars and honky-tonks for 200+ shows a year. Now he lives and creates in Nashville, TN.
On his latest full-length album, Great Big Motel Bed in the Sky, Nathan explores loss and love while being accompanied by his band, The Derechos. It's an imperfect lyrical balance between sincerity and absurdity, with a sonic mix of harmony and grit. Produced by Kalish, this Is a 10-song effort tracked in 3 days at Trace Horse Studios and mixed by Kalish at the Maroon Lagoon. It is a collection inspired by psychedelic folk-rock and cosmic country sounds from the United States of Americana and beyond.
Great Big Motel Bed is in many ways a follow-up to his critically acclaimed 2020 album Songs for Nobody, which many outlets praised; American Songwriter awarded the album 4 out of 5 stars and stated, "Kalish rattles you to the core and is unafraid to make you squirm ─ or at least jolt you awake." On this effort, the themes of Kalish's writing focus more inward on himself than outward, like the social commentary that has often been a more significant part of his previous albums. Most of the same core musicians of The Derechos returned to the studio. These Nashville aces included Adam Kurtz on pedal steel (Joshua Ray Walker, Sarah Shook), drummer Danny Pratt (The Flying Buffaloes), bassist David Guy (Amanda Shires), Zach Vinson on keys, Adam Meisterhans (Tyler Childers, John R Miller, Kelsey Waldon) stepping in on a few extra guitar parts and singing backup,
The opening song is "Rich Man's World," which sounds like Marc Bolan in a Nudie suit taking cynical jabs at the culture of wealth and [ower and those who worship it. "Past the Everglades" is a song about working so hard for something that, after the struggle, you end up feeling like you no longer want it after all. On the track "Ballad of Soules," Kalish writes from the perspective of his late and longtime touring bassist Eric Soules contacting him from the afterlife (AKA the great big motel bed in the sky). Finally, on the track "Unavailable Women," Kalish makes fun of his bad luck with love in a musical style somewhere between Buddy Holly and California country.
Nathan's extensive back catalog of independent releases and hard-touring work ethic have landed him on stages with Lucinda Williams, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, and Lucero, to name a few. As a result, he's earned accolades from Rolling Stone Country, Billboard, American Songwriter, Saving Country Music, and several other international press outlets. Further, his writing has been compared to Tom Petty, John Prine, Gram Parsons, and Paul Westerberg.
Even with unexpected curves and bumps in the past two years, Nathan Kalish's committed relationship with the road still has many more miles to go with a busy 2022 planned. Great Big Motel Bed in the Sky will mark an important chapter in Kalish's creative journey, which is constantly in transit.
