Nathaniel Street-West
Witness
© 2006 Nathaniel Street-West (829165003004)
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Highly imaginative and lyrical storytelling style, deeply creative guitar work, and a nearly instantly recognizable tenor singing voice. "When art touches you where you feel that strongly, it doesn't get any better. It's what it is all about." Jim Keltner
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Somewhere in Malibu, in a living room overlooking the ocean, a miracle transpired last November. What else could you call it when Mark Howard, one of the most respected producers in the business, with credits that include Bob Dylan, U2, and REM, drives down from the desert on little more than a hunch and moves his studio into the home of an artist he barely knows?
And what do you call it when some of the top session players, from up-and-coming stars like Alanis Morissette’s keyboardist Zack Ray to legends on the level of Jim Keltner, come to that same house and, in just one week, begin and finish an album of that artist’s extraordinary songs? Call it a miracle if you like, but the real miracle is in the mind, the hands, and the voice of
Nathaniel Street-West, who takes a big step toward greatness with that album, Witness. Like landmark albums of years past, Witness is a live document, recorded by great players gathered into one room, feeding from each other’s energy and from the fountain of Street-West’s brilliant material.
Like the best of today’s releases, it’s tuned to a modern sensibility, alive with images that tumble through surreal streams of consciousness or pare down to the essence of anger and fear and wounded love. There are epics on Witness, like “Debra,” a story of shattered beauty that bewilders as it enlightens, like a beacon in a house of mirrors. And there are moments of abbreviated eloquence, like “Road Of Life,” which is here and suddenly gone, like the song’s picture of a jet plane that’s borne love away. There’s plenty of space in this music — space for Street-West’s guitar to drip, rich and honeyed, through the dreamy shades in “Flowers Of Summer,” or for his voice to quake and break with anquish in “Coldness Follows.” A song that Jim Keltner said, “really got to me. I immediately connected to a person in my life who is meaningful to me. When art touches you where you feel that strongly, it doesn’t get any better. It’s what it is all about.” The emptiness, as much as sounds, that fills Witness, speaks from Street-West’s soul — and every
moment that’s heard, every silence that’s felt, announces the arrival of a visionary, one whose music can change the listener’s world.
• Artist Website:
www.nathanielstreetwest.com www.myspace.com/streetwest
Key Selling Points:
• Features in EQ and other key magazines
• Artist featured on Premiere Episode of PBS Television Series: Frequency
to be broadcast to 349 U.S. Public TV Stations & through the International
Broadcasting Bureau to 740 stations in 65 countries.
• Artist featured on PBS television / Fast Focus TV short-form to broadcast over 1500 times within 90 days on over 1080 National / International PBS stations & affiliates.
• Artist has substantial internet presence from new upgraded artist website to lauch in July through distribution of Frequency short-form to Google, Comcast, Bellsouth, & Fastfocus.tv
• National/International Radio Promotion by Evolution Promotion; Boston, MA
• National Tour Planning to coincide with release
• National / International Publicity / Advertisng
• In-store play copies / P.O.P available
• Available for in-store on tour route
Selected Reviews:
Editor’s Review
CNET Music Reviews
After penning several classic 1930s novels, Nathaniel Street-West took a half century off, then starting listening to Bright Eyes, added “Street” to his name, and reinvented himself as an indie-pop songwriter in his midtwenties. A more
troubadourish version of Mr. Oberst, Street-West is currently one of the hottest acts in red-hot Austin, TX. Sounds like: Jeff Buckley
Fast Focus TV
Fast Focus on Music enjoys the opportunity to showcase emerging artists to the public television audience. Though just
26 years old, Nathaniel Street-West is a poet with a spirit of the great folk artists of the 1960’s. Bob Dylan, his musical inspiration, clearly influences Street-West’s lyrics and style, but he is also modern in approach, drawing on rhythm and blues, rock and roll and even modern punk. Nathaniel is a story teller and messenger. Like Dylan before him, American history and politics are woven through his lyrics. Fast Focus is pleased to present this interview and performance, shot live at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach, CA.
All Music Guide,
David Jeffries
A singer, songwriter, and guitarist who recalls good old rock & roll with a bit of country mixed in, Nathaniel Street-West was born in a cabin in the Sierra foothills but was raised all over America. This upbringing might explain the
many American flavors in his music but also the independent attitude of Street-West. While the scenery and friends were always changing, his trusty guitar was always with him and the young musician spent countless hours practicing. He was admitted at age 15 to the Musicians Institute in Hollywood and spent his late teens releasing a series of albums that drew praise from those who heard them, which was unfortunately very few. Always one to look forward instead of backward, he decided in 2005 to attempt a more ambitious project. A longtime fan of Bob Dylan’s Time Out of Mind, he contacted the album’s engineer, Mark Howard, hoping he would lend a hand. After listening to the 57 songs Street-West had sent him, Howard accepted the offer and became the album’s producer. Friends of Howard’s like Alanis
Morrissette’s keyboardist Zack Ray and legendary drummer Jim Keltner were brought in for recording sessions, and by the beginning of 2006, the album was completed. Witness appeared in June of that year on the Puffin label.