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Nathan Xander

by Nathan Xander

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davekillcountysmith Somebody needs to give this man a bigger recording budget. Good when it’s just him and his acoustic guitar. So, so, so good when he fronts the full-band sound. Favorite track: OOO OOO OOO.
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1.
From up over my head, down through the soles of my shoes. Swear I'll wrap up all my love and save it for you. You win again. You always knew you would. You got me to swear on my soul that I'll try to be good. I'll try to be good. One promise I'll make to myself, another I'll make to the world. The first you can see through my eyes. The other, through the eyes of my girl. You win again. You always knew you would. You got me to swear on my soul that I'll try to be good. I'll try to be good.
2.
OOO OOO OOO 03:53
Things aren't the way that I hoped they'd be and nowhere near to the way that I always thought. OOO OOO OOO We take our new scars on. OOO OOO OOO The day old bandages come off. And I know how she sees me because I listen. And I know exactly what she's thinking of me now. And I want her to know that I'm no liar, when I say I gonna make her love me again somehow. I take a walk and she talks to me but the voice in my head does no justice to her at all. OOO OOO OOO I hear her talk soft and long. OOO OOO OOO I hear her talk soft and long. Now here's to her and here's to me and one more for all of the trouble that we never saw. OOO OOO OOO It feels so bad since she's gone. OOO OOO OOO But we had a lot of fun being wrong. And I know how she sees me because I listen. And I know exactly what she's thinking of me now. And I want her to know that I'm no liar, when I say I gonna make her love me again somehow. When I say I gonna make her love me again somehow.
3.
Been standing in the rough for way too long. So soundly try to bury you there. You follow my footprints for years in this fog. My hours turn to days that are gone. My quiet love, carried in my arms. My forked tongue can do so much more than cause me harm. This is not mine, When you're not here. Standing on a chair, I see myself through the window outside looking scared. I roll three dice carved out of bone and you shuffle an old deck of cards. Now the dinner bell is calling you home and our game has gone to the dogs. My old friend, you gotta carry on. My forked tongue don't know the difference between right and wrong. This is not mine, When you're not here. Standing on a chair, I see myself through the window outside looking scared. I see myself through the window outside looking scared. I see myself through the window outside looking scared.
4.
Pushing Away 02:42
Pushing away the stone. Looking up as the sun sets and where has your help gone? The split on you and they rolled away home. You need me most and I'm so sorry I don't answer every time you call. And I'd be there today if it weren't for tomorrow. I'd be there today if it weren't for tomorrow. You've got a handle on half of all I know. The stuff I get for free is the stuff you gotta work for. and I can't explain it and you can't take it no more. You need me most and I'm so sorry that you feel so sorry on your own. And I'd be there today if it weren't for tomorrow. I'd be there today if it weren't for tomorrow.
5.
The piano rings out like a bell and I'm hearing my heart for the first time. Coming up on an edge, taking my first step out past it and I'm surprised I didn't lose my mind. But those stories aren't true and now you know you're not the only one. Superstitious heart, the night's waiting to be painted blue. But red's the only color I know and my brush has always been a bit too wild for you. Smoking a cigarette, my man made dragon's breath, and I'm hacking my guts out in your car. In the ground we plant my blood and we plant the butts and a scratchy voiced singer knows he's growing on the corner stage in this bar. My soul's always being saved. I'm learning from a vision I see all the time, that never comes back again the same. I got a package in the mail, filled with clothes I used to wear, that I dumped out in the desert months ago. So I got a few of my old shirts back but sadly, I've move on from that and if I decide to wear them again I swear you'll be the first to know. But those stories aren't true and now you know you're not the only one. Superstitious heart, the night's waiting to be painted blue. But red's the only color I know and my brush has always been a bit too wild for you.
6.
Baby never wanted to be no country singer. She'd rather sing her songs out in her mind. Baby always saw musicians as so self important and anyway, speaking in front of people makes her wanna cry. Baby and I used to turn on the radio most every morning. Knocking out the Tom Petty songs we knew alright. When it was time to start a work day my old head would start a rolling and as I'd walk away I'd like to think she hummed "Learning To Fly" But something in me makes sweet baby wanna run away in the fall. Something in me makes sweet baby wanna run away for reasons she don't understand at all. If we made it through another winter, a fate I could almost die for. I'm pretty sure anything I could give her wouldn't last too long. Because by the end of next summer we'd be back to where we're standing. Baby with a wandering eye and me standing out in the leaves with a song. But something in me makes sweet baby wanna run away in the fall. Something in me makes sweet baby wanna run away for reasons she don't understand at all.
7.
The sidewalk this morning was bleeding fog. Seemed too cold to bleed anything at all. I woke this morning and couldn't see the sun on the last day of the month. So I lay around a couple hours more. Waited for a bird or waited for a song but nothing spoke to me so I put a record on the last day of the month. Another one in bloom, the first one in forever that I didn't think of you. And I didn't think of you and I. My time came around and I walked out the door. Thought of my hometown as I passed by my car. Seems like walking's all I do anymore. The last day of the month. Another one in bloom, the first one in forever that I didn't think of you. And I didn't think of you and I. Like every other time that I heeded it's call. Same in the spring as it was in the fall. Everybody needs a day where they don't do nothing at all. The last day of the month. Another one in bloom, the first one in forever that I didn't think of you. And I didn't think of you and I.
8.
My friends don't know it yet and if they did they might not believe that I'm gonna give them what I keep like some old paint cans in the basement of my dreams. And before I lay my head down I'm gonna scream and pour my head out. I've been riding a dark horse to get where I was going. Now I'm running a chop shop on every thought I've ever know. And now the street side of the road I'm on has been cleaned up good and sexy like it's some road by Leonard Cohen and if you feel like you wanna help me along, I believe that it's time we sang another song. And before we lay our heads down we're gonna scream and pour our heads out.
9.
I won't start this off by telling a lie. I'm almost kind of bored with all the details of my life. I won't talk about a train or the way that it rolls. There's only one girl I've ever met who rides them and, the two of us, we don't talk anymore. Grab a line if there's something that calls for you. Drag a scarecrow if something follows you. And on the end of every sharp edge every point is just about the same. What've you done today for god to want to pound out your name? Everybody touches some good luck a few times in their life. Somebody might buy your breakfast or you might get to fool around with some chick you like. You search for your big winner but that's something you can't buy. I'm pretty sure nobody ever gets to heaven unless they sleep every minute of every day till they die. Grab a line if there's something that calls for you. Drag a scarecrow if something follows you. And on the end of every sharp edge every point is just about the same. What've you done today for god to want to pound out your name? The story's never over or else we'd all leave, back to whatever thing we left before we came here to be. The story's never over or else we'd all leave, back to whatever thing we left before we came here to be.

about

"This is the third album release from singer songwriter Nathan Xander. Comprising 9 songs it is not a lengthy affair, but to mis-quote a well known phrase, "never mind the quantity feel the quality". And quality is what we get here with an eminently listenable album." - Americana UK

"If you are looking for a candidate to join the forces of today’s Indie-Americana heroes, Nathan Xander should be on your radar, hell he should be in your ears!" - Slowcoustic

"...it's sad, haunting, beautiful, universal and lingers in your brain... Nathan Xander's songs are simple but smart, sparse but with space and definitely get to the heart of matters of the heart." - Reglar Wiglar

"With bright harmonica bursts and shadowy lyrics, the music serves as both a reverent nod to Xander's influences and a window into his own individualism. This is a delicate balance; many a young songwriter apes his predecessors at the cost of ingenuity, and perhaps even more plunge into the waters with little knowledge of the debt they owe to their forebears. Xander walks the line ably, dancing slowly with the past but moving surely toward the future." – C.T. Heany, 89.3 WNUR
____________________________________________________

NEW YORK, N.Y. — After releasing a 7” of two new arrangements of previous songs in 2010, the studio where New York singer-songwriter Nathan Xander was recording was struck by lightning, and he lost eight finished songs that were to comprise the follow up to his sophomore record, The Fear. It’s been three years of waiting for a new full-length LP, but after a year of sporadic recording in Brooklyn and Chicago, it's finally here.

Shifting around geographically over the years, from his small hometown of Union City, PA to Pittsburgh to Chicago, he now lives in New York, where he’s been writing new material and playing shows. While many liken him to Neil Young, Nick Drake or Jason Molina, his unique finger picking and lyrics create a sound undeniably his own, drawing from a mix of every band that he’s ever listened to twice. Laid back, confident, and brutally honest, he delivers just as much with his guitar as he does with his words, and his accompanying band adds a depth and poignancy to his songs that distinguishes him from traditional Americana.

His third self-titled record, set for release on September 1, 2012, retains the distinct, smart combinations of guitar, harmonica, and drums of previous recordings, but with lyrics more focused and less fragile. When asked about the tone of the record, Xander responded, ”It was sort of spiteful at first. I had a few songs written in Chicago after I’d been cut loose from a relationship. The girl and I decided to try it again, so I dumped the band and moved to New York. The same thing happened for the 2nd or 3rd time a few months later, and it’s like I was trying to talk myself out of a situation I didn’t want to be in anymore. Trying to get these songs out as a sort of release. I was feeling really bad when I started recording, and I put them all together because the album was writing itself one after the other.”

credits

released September 4, 2012

Recorded by Sam Wadsworth at Japam Studio & Brian's Spare Bedroom, Brooklyn, NY and Chicago, IL
Mixed by Sam Wadsworth at Japam Studio
Mastered by Carl Saff

Nathan Xander - guitars, vocals, harmonica
Brian Morrissey - guitar and keys: 2, 3, 6, 7
Ryan Juravic - percussion: 1, 2, 3, 7
Keith Rowland - bass guitar: 2, 3, 7
Nick Broste - trombone: 4, 9

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Nathan Xander New York, New York

Nathan Xander writes songs that are steeped in the quiet, restrained tension of what Greil Marcus called the 'Old, Weird America'.

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