Photo by Joshua Black Wilkins
EDITOR’S NOTE: JD McPherson is No Depression’s Spotlight artist for September 2024. Learn more about him via this interview. His new album, Nite Owls, coming Sep. 27 on New West Records.
You might not expect a guy who was born and raised in Oklahoma to spin his rockabilly sound together with surf music, of all things, much less to add a vibe reminiscent of Depeche Mode or New Order. Yet, these are at least some of the elements Oklahoma singer-songwriter JD McPherson has credited with inspiring his new album, Nite Owls, which drops next week.
In his recent interview with Sean Moores for ND, McPherson talked about the raw, live energy with which he and his band approached the album. So, it’s fitting that the video McPherson made exclusively for ND readers feels so raw and immediate, swirling together all those disparate elements that can only come from an artist who’s worked hard enough for long enough to truly trust their own artistic instincts.
In the song’s introduction, McPherson notes that he writes a lot of songs with ridiculous lyrics that he has no intention of ever putting out into the world. “But this one made it through,” he says. We can all thank our lucky stars for that.
On Nite Owls, he notes, “I Can’t Go Anywhere with You” is a duet with Canadian artist Bloodshot Bill.
