PRE-ORDER: Nicole Hale - There Is a Place [Vinyl]

"Nicole Hale is a wonderful Austin-based singer/songwriter who has been active for a while, but whose work is currently substantiated only by a lovely, self-issued 2025 cassette entitled, Some Kind of Longing. Thus, Feeding Tube is proud to present her only vinyl album available, which we believe will go down as an instant classic. Nicole plays guitar and keyboards and sings in a lazily gorgeous stye that is intimate, personal and straightforward. Her lyrics are experiential, sharing fully-lived stories and feelings rather than spinning mere yarns. A few people have told me they hear shades of Karen Dalton in her voice, and their vocal approaches do share a certain timelessness. But even at her starkest, Hale evinces little of Dalton's abiding desperation. And the occasional backing vocals by Bonnie "Prince" Billy balance perfectly with Hale's upper register. Much has been made of Hale's accordion mastery, but the keyboard work on There is a Place sounds more like organ or harmonium to me, and the keys are generally relegated to the background. At the musical fore is Nicole's acoustic guitar, played in style that creates lines with a rhythmic simplicity recalling Michael Hurley or early Leonard Cohen. If I had to make comparisons (and I suppose I must), I'd say that 'Hold Gaze' has a metric structure reminiscent of Judee Sill, and 'Horizon Ships' has the same feel as some of Kendra Smith's solo work. But these are the sorts of straws a writer grasps at when faced with true originality. Hale's music is so direct and open a listener is compelled to imagine there must be an extant model for it. But that is a canard. Despite its forthright surface, the songs of Nicole Hale are original, beautiful and searingly honest. They are songs of experience rather than artifice, and we think they will kick your metaphoric ass to heaven and back." --Byron Coley, 2027

A1. Alligator Skin
A2. Garden
A3. Can't Be Denied
A4. Big River
A5. By and By
A6. A Town Where Nobody Lives Anymore
A7. Always on the Phone
B1. Hold Gaze
B2. Saw Your Picture
B3. Horizon Ships
B4. Cross Change
B5. Birds of Winter
B6. Something Strange
B7. Until I Come Home