Buffalo Nichols

“There’s remarkable confidence and gravity here — especially for a second album that’s so different from its self-titled predecessor" - No Depression

"[Buffalo Nichol's] voice is both a sonorous cavern and a raw nerve: his lyrics have a haunted, lived-in quality that draws you in... this is a younger person with fathoms of feeling — and the wherewithal to execute it vitally, in the now." - GRAMMY.com

Buffalo Nichols today released The Fatalist, his evocative and mesmerizing sophomore album, via Fat Possum; order/stream it everywhere HERE. Just named one of ‘5 Younger Musicians Keeping The Blues Alive’ at GRAMMY.com and one of the “New Guitar Greats” by Garden & Gun, the Milwaukee-based artist and his new LP have earned early praise and support from Rolling Stone (Song You Need to Know), Guitar World.com (Essential Guitar Tracks), WNYC New Sounds, No Depression, Milwaukee Record, Folk Alley, and more. Listen to the new standout track “The Fatalist Blues,” one he calls “a song rejecting the ‘bootstrap’ myth,” which follows album singles “The Difference,” “Love Is All,” and “You’re Gonna Need Somebody On Your Bond.” 

Nichols explains “The Fatalist Blues:” “A song rejecting the ‘bootstrap’ myth - capitalist greed is an omnipotent force which can not be willed away by an individual. Certain things, systems and institutions cannot be reformed - only destroyed. This was inspired by the line from an old spiritual which I believe holds this same sentiment... ‘If I had my way, I would tear this whole building down.’”

Buffalo Nichols will celebrate the release on an extensive headlining U.S. tour this fall/winter, including upcoming dates at NYC’s Mercury Lounge (9/22) and LA’s Gold Diggers (11/18). He’ll also embark on a 2024 European tour, including shows at London’s The Lexington (1/30) and Rotterdam’s De Doelen (2/4). A full itinerary is listed below, and tickets are on sale now.

The follow-up to his 2021 self-titled debut LP for Fat Possum–a critically acclaimed record that earned him his network television debut on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, various major festival performances, and rave coverage via NPR Music (All Songs Considered, Tiny Desk (Home) Concert), Rolling Stone, Guitar World, Texas Monthly, and more–The Fatalist sounds unlike any blues record you’re likely to hear in 2023. Nichols digs deep in search of answers to ever-more-complicated questions around responsibility and self-definition, and his plainspoken lyrics are both cutting and refreshing in their sincerity and refusal to accept pat solutions.

On The Fatalist, Nichols does things with the blues that might catch you off guard. There’s 808 programming, chopped up samples, washes of synth. There’s a consideration of the fullness of the sonic stage and the atmospherics of blues music that can only come with a long engagement with electronic music. But this is no gimmicky hybrid or attempt to turn the blues into 21st century music by simply dressing it with skittering hi-hats. Nichols’ vision for the blues is of a form of music that’s intimately tied to everyday life in 2023, something that’s reflected not only in the choice of instrumentation, but in the complexities of the songwriting and the gray areas his lyrics explore. This is music that comes straight from the present, and as such, it’s a reminder that the same shit that drove the first blues singers to pick up a guitar is still present behind the throbs of deep bass hits today.