On the album cover, she’s posing draped across the massive expanse of a bull’s horns, a hint of danger contained in the unmistakably beautiful shot. #GIRL IN COUNTRY GRAMMAR VIDEO FULL#Highway Queen is full of smoky, cartoonish melodies like this that one - that that were the hallmark of ’70s country –and they’re guided into outlaw territory by Lane’s unmistakable high, sweet alto galloping out in front. And even if it doesn’t, you better believe Lane is going to keep hitting the road singing her songs, if only to make those rednecks happy. If there’s any justice, this will be the record where her risky, rascally style pays off. In the end, satisfaction seems to be the only currency that Lane deems worthy of gambling. On the track, Lane imagines this army of backwoods people are what helps propel her to a life on the road that’s far less than glamorous, and pays little outside of satisfaction. Don’t ever expect to see her signed to a major label or working with pop producers, and don’t expect her to stop designing her own skull panties that say “F*ck Off” across the front. The Black Keys member ran into Nikki at one of the vintage markets she frequents, and helped out simply because he was a fan of her music.Įven if she left behind fashion design as her main focus, Lane still manages to incorporate it on the side, running a secondhand clothes boutique called High Class Hillbilly, which is part of a larger vintage and emerging designer scene in East Nashville (that I reported on last year for Racked). That second record also benefited from the guidance of production helmed by Dan Auerbach, and for a rookie country singer, an expert’s tweaks made all the difference. When Lane released her debut album Walk Of Shame in 2011, it turned some heads, but country music wasn’t full of the independent and female-focused momentum it is now, so it wasn’t until her follow-up, All Or Nothin’ in 2014, that Lane really began to amass the cult following she has now, who love her drawl, crass language, and singular moments of vulnerability.Īll these elements are so clearly part of who Lane is as a person, that yes, they play out in her music, but also in her personality and artistic impulses across the board. She was more than right, and her determination continues to raise the stakes in the genre. ![]() Lane is a high school dropout who moved to New York City to become a fashion designer, succeeded, then quit and decided to become a country singer - inspired largely by an ex-boyfriend’s own artistic incompetence.īack in 2014 when I interviewed Lane for an Elmore print cover story about young women in country music, she told me she figured she could make music at least as good as her ex, if not better. The South Carolina-born, Nashville-living musician is releasing her third full-length record next month on New West, a small but formidable independent label focused on gritty, rootsy music of all strains. ![]() ![]() ![]() Nikki Lane is not your conventional country singer. It will highlight the great moments, and occasionally, dig deep into the bad ones, but the goal is always to bring more attention to a genre that is far too often swept under the rug due to class assumptions or music criticism’s clear rockist past. The purpose of this column will be to analyze and demystify country releases, large or small, and help halt the notion that Country music is somehow less deserving of introspective analysis than rock, rap, or pop. Country Grammar is a recurring monthly column about country music.
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