Nick Schillace
A rich boy’s Measured Blues
About
Nick Schillace’s third album of acoustic solo guitar is a phenomenal record of all original works, recorded live without overdubs. On tracks like “Soft as a Flame” and “Exponential Love,” strands of melody unravel themselves and wrap around competing strains like proteins in an RNA chain—all in an effort to give nothing so much as pure joy to the listener. Other tracks on A Rich Boy’s Measured Blues are more lilting and simple, to great effect. “Gold Dusted” or “My Side of the Mountain” might be stuck inside your brain for days, but you won’t mind. Schillace gets a little weird and deep in a raga style, too, notably on the eight-minute “Blood Meridian.” This is not a manifesto, because 50-year-olds don’t need to write manifestos. But it is such a powerfully woven-together record that it has all the power of one.
Already a successful educator (with his own music school, Orion Music Studio, and the Detroit Folk Workshop), Schillace is a master of styles, tones, and approaches to playing the guitar, banjo—and, yes, his own guitar-banjo hybrid. He first studied fingerpicking techniques at the 1984 Augusta Heritage Workshop in West Virginia with artists like John Jackson and John Cephas. He also is a member of Lac La Belle and the Post Imperial Jazz Band. An expert on how vernacular forms intersect with each other and the music of John Fahey, a copy of his 2002 graduate thesis on Fahey is available as a free PDF on his website. Schillace has toured the US and Europe extensively but remains best known in Detroit. We expect that to change with this record.
What others are saying about the record
“Nick Schillace has been one of my favorite guitarists and musical minds since I first encountered his work in the early 2000s. His playing is both technically dazzling and emotionally empathetic; his songs convey both the joy of putting notes together and the weird wonder of existence. I hear something new every time I listen to his music, and whenever I revisit his albums, it feels like catching up with an old friend. ”
“If the hardest-driving works of Leo Kottke, Peter Lang and Jack Rose are your cup of meat, you’ll want to latch onto Detroit native Nick Schillace’s latest. Wedding ferocious syncopation and a rock-solid right hand with an inspired sense of what’s possible for the guitar, he makes what I think of as ‘old world’ solo guitar albums — punchy, no BS, straight from the shoulder. Love it!”
“Nick Schillace’s A Rich Boy’s Measured Blues is a gauntlet thrown into a crowded room. As the study and practice of modern guitar of the Takoma School fractures and atomizes, this music harkens back to something more pure…. A time when hard work, honest living, and a guitar could encompass the reaches of human expression. Schillace’s focused, limber thumb hammers the message home over and over without irony or affectation. While his intricate melodies never look away from the starkness of reality, they always find the hope that lies within as well. Schillace has been at this game for good while now, having first raised his lamp in the early aughts when guitar giants still roamed the earth; but his approach is still taking him and his listeners forward, wrestling with the assumptions of this music and the world.
What has always amazed me about Guitar Soli is the ability of each person to find their own unique voice within the guitar, and Nick is one of the foremost alchemists engaged in this transmutation. Within each tune we find joy mixed with a drop of melancholy or frustration mixed with a dose of acceptance. Like the multi dimensional reality around us, this music is never reducible to one emotion or concept, but rather exults in the complexity of it all. Schillace wields his guitar like the jaws of life… prying us out of the wreckage of our souls and holds us up in front of the new day’s light. And this is when we realize that Schillace, although standing alongside yesterday’s masters, is actually showing us the way forward”
“A very welcome return from Detroit MI based performer and educator, Nick Schillace, with his first proper LP since 2008’s “Landscape and People”. On the seven tunes comprising, “A Rich Boys Measured Blues”, we find Schillace as dynamic and self-assured as ever. The album effortlessly dances between jubilant knee-slappers, “Snake Oil Jackknife” and “My Side of the Mountain”, to the ecstatic beauty of, “Exponential Love”, taking us home with the tranceinducing extended closer “Blood of the Meridian”. While these compositions share a kinship with the rich and varied lineage of fingerstyle players who came before, Schillace manages to effortlessly ground this music in the presenttense. “A Rich Boys Measured Blues” marks yet another fine entry in Schillace’s discography, firmly establishing his place among an ever-expanding field of solo guitar players. Well worth the wait.”
“Nick Schillace was touring the country with his confident brand of Guitar Soli when the genre was at its nadir. Before the NPR features, before labels like Tompkins Square and VDSQ started taking erstwhile players from their bedrooms to the world stage, Schillace was showing that the story of the acoustic fingerpicked guitar was still being written, and that the tale could still have plenty of twists and turns. Now, a decade on from his last solo effort Landscape and People, the veteran player and educator has returned to the scene with a new LP and a confidence that can’t be ignored. A Rich Boy’s Measured Blues reveals what many of us have known for years: that Schillace has a toolbox as deep as any in the solo acoustic field. It is as comprehensive an instrumental guitar record as any, from any era, and it is especially welcome right now”
“I’ve been enthralled with Nick’s music since I came across his Landscape and People LP back in 2008. And I’m so honored to have had a small part in his return to solo guitar”
“With an authoritative knowledge and understanding of the traditions of American folk music, guitarist Nick Schillace’s latest is a moving experience that showcases his skills as an exceptionally-gifted soloist with his own unique voice in contemporary music.”
Nick on the Record and Returning to Solo Recording
There are so many great melodies throughout; is the tunefulness on display intentional?
I've heard that about my music before. I definitely write from the perspective of a melody as opposed to a riff or a tuning. I wouldn't know how to arrange a song otherwise. Plus my hobby is arranging old jazz/fiddle tunes for fingerpicking. I've done hundreds, and that amount of melodic submersion must have compositional consequences.
How do you yourself compare this to your prior releases?
Well, my second CD was a real arrival for me. I was just starting to tour and meet people and I felt really good about the writing on it. But the release was disappointing and frustrating. I mostly stepped away from solo guitar after that and focused on group projects. Later, I had a lot of encouragement to get another album together. One friend in particular gave me a pep talk at a guitar festival that stuck with me. When I finally decided to write another one, my writing had become a lot more focused, and the tunes really established themselves individually. These compositions are some of my best writing, and I'm really proud of them.
Which contemporary guitarists do you love, and why?
Duck Baker, Joseph Allred, Chuck Johnson, Glenn Jones, Danny Paul Grody, Rob Noyes, Marisa Anderson, and Tyler Hicks. I just love how these guitar players compose and write with their own voices as opposed to aping a tradition. What’s with the album title? That’s my not-so-subtle jab at the ridiculousness of idolatry, especially as it pertains to guitar players.
Release Date
April 19th, 2024
Formats
Vinyl / Digital
Tracklist
Snakeoil Jackknife (03:47)
The Scorpion and the Crow (03:34)
Exponential Love (04:15)
Gold Dusted (03:32)
Soft as Flame (05:19)
My Side of the Mountain (04:29)
Blood of the Meridian (07:45)
Credits
All Songs Nick Schillace/Double Lot Music
Recorded by Nick Schillace at Double Lot
Mixed by Eric Carbonara at Nada Sound Studio
Mastered by Chuck Johnson at Cirrus Oxide Studio
Artwork "Blue #1" 1978 by Isabel Schillace
Special thanks to Jennie Knaggs
