Nathan Hamilton

Music:

Member Since: 12/15/2005
Band Website: nathanhamilton.com
Band Members: Current Line-Up: Nathan Hamilton - guitar & lead vocals, Billy Brent Malkus - lead guitar & backing vocals, Chepo Pena - bass, Adam Tyner - drums
Influences:
Sounds Like: In a word, damn! Austin’s Nathan Hamilton was always “good”- good in the way you would hope any singer-songwriter with a Kerrville New Folk win to their name would be. But who knew he could be great? That’s not meant as a backhanded compliment; it’s just a real (and welcome) kick in the butt when an artist you think you’ve got all sized up throws you off guard by quietly releasing a record that rocks on the level of Six Black Birds. “Even the sweetest of saints/show their teeth sometimes,” Hamilton sings on “Teeth”- a perfect metaphor for the album’s secret weapon: Billy Brent Malkus, the Texas Sapphires guitarist whose jagged leads lend the whole record a bite worthy of James McMurtry’s Heartless Bastards. But Hamilton’s songs here cut just as deep, and when all the elements- killer rhythm section and B3 included- lock together perfectly on the title track or for the album’s five minute, gear grinding, tour de force centerpiece, aptly titled “The Cut”, the result wrecks unholy hell on your CD or MP3 player’s repeat button. Of course, not every track here carries the same undeniable swagger; some of them take a stealthier approach. But the tension never lets up until the very end. By the time Six Black Birds winds down to its closing grace note, the acoustic guitar strum and quietly reflective tone of “Hanging On” feels like a deep sigh after surviving a thrilling knife fight. - Richard Skanse Texas Music Magazine
Record Label:
Type of Label: None