Cotton Jones

Cotton Jones is the wonderful band that is opening for us on our upcoming tour. Check them out!

Vultures Video

Here is the video for Vultures directed by my talented good buddies Mandy Bisesti and Lucia Holm. We filmed it in Shark River in the pourin rain. My lil sister Courtney is the lemon cutter.

Black Keys West Coast Tour Pt 1

Stream the "Dear New Orleans" Record Here!

Please go to www.dearno.la to purchase and lend your support to our good friends in New Orleans.

ukelale skywriterzzzzzzzz!

holy smokes! just found this online and this girl is the cutest thing i've ever seen. this made my day!

In the Meantime....

details on my journey out with regina spektor and her band to come soon. also, tickets are still for the taking for my shows on aug 1 with rufus wainwright at the paramount theater in asbury park nj and aug 7 with simone felice at city winery in nyc. get you some goods! in the meantime...enjoy this....

Cookin, Pickin and a Grinnin'

A couple weeks ago, along with the help of my sister Courtney, drummer Adam and buddy Bradford, I had the pleasure of taping a little cooking/gig event. Backyard BBQ and it was an absolute blast! Take a gander...

Greetings from Connecticut!

I'm writing to ya'lls from the Carriage House in Connecticut where Phil Palazzolo and I are doing the final mixes of my new record Mondo Amore. Theres still a ton to do. Some vocals here, guitars, etc. but its really exciting that this is all coming together. (fuck it i'm not going to use capitol letters anymore)
this is the record i envisioned making almost two years ago when i knew what i wanted but i had no idea how to pull it off. so basically just working away for a year at it and just concentrating on the songs and who would play on them and then magically at this final juncture i just took a step back and realized, wow, this is exactly what i wanted. i couldnt tell you how it happened but it did. i can't wait to share it with you. right now we're mixing "oh canada." this morning we finished up "hotel plaster" and "heavy boots." phil and i have been awake for more hours than most people should and in the studio kitchen saw two bottles of english baking soda. from there we argued on which bottle of baking soda would win in a fight. then we watched a youtube video of a monkey fucking a frog at the zoo. now we're listening to the rolling stone's "starfucker," and replacing it with "frogfucker." i think that monkey took the whole "you gotta kiss alot of frogs to find your prince," thing to a whole new level.
anyways, we're gonna be working away on the record through the Fourth of July holiday. putting the spit shine on these little songs under the fireworks in the middle of the woods surrounded by dogs, cats, friends, and tons of paint markers. i wish you all a wonderful holiday with your family and friends as well as to our friends in the armed forces. thank you guys! and for all those in brooklyn. two days and its on fuckin FIIIIIIRE! have fun!

Check out my friends Rivercity Extension!

"Its a wonderful Life" cover via Large Hearted Boy

Our buddies over at Large Hearted Boy posted an mp3 of our cover of Sparklehorse's "Its a Wonderful Life" from SXSW. You can listen here:
http://www.lullabyes.net/blog/2010/04/nicole-atkins-031910.html

Going to the Carraige House in Connecticut tomorrow with my producer Phil to start mixing "Mondo Amore" Its really starting to come together! Yay!
In other news, since my tour with Midlake got squashed because of the volcano, I did get to go to Baltimore last week to play a streetfair and low and behold, ended up drinking vodkas with John Waters. WTF! It was pretty damn awesome and surreal. He gave me some great cooking tips. Apparently flank steak has no calories! hahah!
In the words of good ol' Socrates "Be excellent to eachother."

Iceland's on Fire

I'm so sad to say that due to the volcano in Iceland I will have to cancel my performances in Sweden at Kong and all of the opening gigs I was supposed to do with Midlake. My flight has been canceled twice already now and with everyone trying to get around there at the same time the flight prices are impossible. I'm talking black market prices. In the meantime I'll be working on rescheduling the dates for the summer hopefully. I was really looking forward to seeing all my scandinavian friends again and playing for you all and getting to see the wonderful sound that is Midlake, alas the volcano says no! ayyyyyieee. On the upside, I'll have a bit more time to finish my record sooner than I thought, so that's the good crust! If you're out in Holland or Belgium, please still go see Midlake, because they will knock your socks off. And I'll be seein you soon, don't you worry. Now somebody, please sacrifice a dang virgin to this volcano already!

I was this couple's first dance @ their wedding!!!

ok. this totally makes me smile!

Color of Clouds, Dan Chen (cashmere) and singer Kelli Scarr's side project, just had their debut album released this week! They had a CD release party at Pianos on Thursday night - Kelli did a short little performance, Dan DJ'd, and a good time was had by all! Their album 'Satellite of Love' is now on iTunes http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/satellite-of-love/id358261757 ; check em out on Facebook too: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Color-of-Clouds/214694085214?ref=ts

PBS, Austin City Limits and SXSW!

Nicole Atkins Feat. Future Clouds & Radar @ SXSW!

I'm getting ready to head down to Austin on Saturday for SXSW and I'm excited and honored to announce that one of my favorite Austin bands, Future Clouds and Radar will be my backing band for the festival! Their music is a mixture of great storytelling, mystery, psychedelia and heart. Having them backing me up is pretty fitting too as over the last year their leader, Robert Harrison and I have formed a great working relationship as cowriters for some songs on my upcoming album and for a few songs on our side project Sir Parker. I'm really excited to be going down there to play mostly new songs from my upcoming album (still figuring out what i'm going to call it...perhaps i'll just name the album "the black sea," thoughts?)and am also excited to be able to introduce ya'll to future clouds and radar! check out some of their songs here: http://www.myspace.com/futurecloudsandradartx

While we're in Austin you can come see me play here:

Mar 14 2010 9:45P
PBS.org Performance @ ACL Studios Austin, Texas

Mar 18 2010 7:30P
La Zona Rosa Austin, Texas (Ray Davies & Roky Erikkson w/ Okkervil River are also on this bill so I'd get there early so you can get in! Yay!)

Mar 19 2010 1:30P
Club DeVille - BrooklynVegan Party Austin, Texas

Mar 20 2010 1:00P
Red Eyed Fly - WXPN Party Austin, Texas

He Has the Soul of Liz Claiborne!

Sitting with Susan in the living room. She's making plans for ornate headdresses and I'm making plans for SXSW. Veeeery excited to be heading down there again! My good buddies Future Clouds & Radar will be backing me up for my shows down there. Halla! So far I know I'm doing the PBS showcase on the 14th. Band of Skulls will be doing it too which I'm psyched about because even though I havent heard them yet, I've heard good things about them. I'm also playing the Bellhouse/WXPN party at 1pm on Saturday. I might be doing that one solo but am not sure yet. I'm reallyyyyyyy excited about my actual music showcase but I can't announce it yet. I want to! But I gotta wait till they put it up on the sxsw site. soon my friends!
Learning the Who song "The Song is Over," for the Carnegie Hall show this tuesday! Its a tribute to the Who and the lineup is grrreat! You guys should get tickets if they are still available. Also, there are still tickets available to my City Winery show with Joseph Arthur on March 12th. Neptune City album artwork artist Nic Rad is going to be doing and projecting a live painting of my set behind me while I play. Yay!
Last thing last...I'm djing at Niagra this Thursday! Come out and Dance. Lots of exciting updates to come soon!!!!

Me & David Byrne sing Neptune City @ Bowery Ballroom 2/4/10

Nicole Atkins & David Byrne, Neptune City from Nicole Atkins on Vimeo.

Daytrotter!

Last October we visited the Daytrotter Headquarters and did a session. You can view it and download it now! Hooray!!! www.daytrotter.com

Stories in High Fidelity

Last Wednesday I was part of a show at the Bowery Ballroom called "Stories in High Fidelity." It was an absolute blast. Lots of really funny storytellers including NY Times writer Allan Light (whos touching story about his 6 year olds Beatlemania actually made me excited about my hopeful futuristic children), novelist Dan Kennedy (who did a hilarious interpretation of what a group prayer by Bon Jovi might sounds like before they go onstage!), Jason Gordon (who read a book report he did in 5th grade about the Doors "No One Here Gets Out Alive") and David Bryne who did an amazing lecture about how musicians make music for specific venues, ie, rap is made for car speakers, midtempo U2 music is for stadiums, etc. Actually made me have more of an understanding for East coast vs West Coast hip hop. If you ever get a chance to listen to David Byrne lecture, do it! Its eye and ear opening and extremely funny in his way. After the speakers, I played a small acoustic set solo and was accompanied by cartoonist Michael Arthur who drew cartoons of my songs while i sang them. He has a great band called Balthrop Alabama that ya'll should check out. Actually they are playing one of the nights I host at Bowery Electric on March 5th. Come see them!
For my last song I played "Neptune City," and was joined by David Byrne on vocals and guitar. It was like a dream as he's always been one of my favorite artists and now here he was up onstage singing and playing my song with me. yip! I loved the way his guitar playing made a somber song such as that sound, i dunno, tropical! Byrne brought the warmth.
A great show topped off by a great hang with my ladies Miss LuLu and Mandy, Foleyz, my roomie Susan and her bf Adam, my producer Phil Palazollo or Pizzapollies as he's lovingly referred to as, and good ol' Dawn and Tom. Courtney, Jackie and the notorious Vodka Dave were in the house as well although my dancing shoes were not awake enough to follow them into the night.
It was such an amazing night that I can't wait to be part of again. In the meantime, if you ever see one of these stories in high fidelity shows advertised or a storyteller slam by the MOTH. GO go go!!!

Lookout for a new blog on Monday, I know I've been lazy with this thing but there are lots of things to share! Also, I have a video I'm gonna post of David Byrne and I singing together once I figure out how to convert the video into a smaller file. Any tips?

Goldenwood!

My superhero librarian roomie susan makes gorgeous necklaces out of antique wood and gold and now you can buy them! check out her etsy site!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Goldenwood

Paste Session

Back in October when we were out on tour with the Avett Brothers we visted our buds at Paste Magazine for a live session. Have a gander!
cut and paste (no pun intended!) this link into your browser!

http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/av/2010/01/watch-nicole-atkins-live-at-paste.html

The Earthquake in Haiti and How you can Help...

On January 12, 2010, at 4:53pm local time, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti, approximately 10 miles from Port-au-Prince. Tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people are feared dead, as the capital city has been devastated. You can help. Make a donation to one of these incredible and long-standing organizations in Haiti. They have distributed staff in country now, but most importantly, they are well positioned to aid in the long-term recovery effort.

Partners in Health: www.pih.org
Fonkoze: www.fonkoze.org
The Lambi Fund of Haiti: www.lambifund.org

the bird whisperer

this is wrigley. he's a lovebird that my roomate soos and i are birdsitting. he likes to hang outside of his cage and sit on cups or heads or laptops and be part of the group. on this particular evening he didnt wanna go back in his cage. after trying to reel him in for almost an hour, foley finally got a hold of him and hypnotized the little bird with song safely to go back into his little cage.