Nicolai Dunger with special guest Holcombe Waller

Show Description

There is honesty in Nicolai Dunger's voice and songwriting, far from the calculated hit list music and rock star mentality that is so common in the music biz. Just as with the songs of Bob Dylan, Neil Young, John Lee Hooker and the work of other legends the songs of Nicolai Dunger have a timeless quality. There is something in them that speaks to us all. Tales of love, pain, happiness and melancholy - subjects of eternal concern for mankind, whose need of someone adressing them, reflecting our own inner lives, is just as eternal itself. Nicolai Dunger is without doubt one of those artists that aren't satisfied until every phrase, tone and bit of lyric has found its way deep inside you and touched you where it really matters. International ears have been tuning in to this Swede, who echoes references of a young Van Morrison, Tim Buckley, Tim Hardin and Nick Drake all at once. Nicolai Dunger has become a favorite of other artists touring and recording with such people as Mercury Rev, The Soundtrack of Our Lives, Will Oldham and Calexico. "Nicolai Dunger sounds like Nick Nolte looks. Beaten down, dishevelled, with last night's Jack Daniels still coursing through his veins and this morning's Marlboros still burning in his throat, his careworn experience jostles with his undefeated optimism. He may have Nordic blond good looks, but he has the rough cynicism of a delta bluesman, singing dusty tales of wasted lives and unforgiven mistakes, childhood heroes and lost loves...an inventive, affectionate and utterly European homage to Americana." – www.forcedexposure.com
www.nicolaidunger.com





San Francisco native Holcombe Waller is an independent artist now living in Portland, Oregon. Holcombe's unearthly voice harkens back to Donovan or a young Chris de Burgh, but truth be told, Holcombe's upcoming album "Troubled Times" (May/2005, Napoleon Records) is evocative of a musical union between The Judybats and Chan Marshall, with subtle homage to the tender, down-and-out stylings of Americana-punk balladeer Gillian Welch. With musical collaborator Ben Landsverk, Holcombe crafts lilting melodies from his emotionally and politically charged lyrics, set within intricate arrangements of warm acoustic guitars, rumbling electric keyboards and the occasional banjo. www.holcombewaller.com