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Israel Nash may live in the Texas Hill Country, but hell always be an Ozarker at heart.I was born and raised in small-town Missouri, Nash reflects. All the people and the stories and the music that shaped me come from that part of the country, and I could feel it calling back to me on this album. Recorded with producer Kevin Ratterman (My Morning Jacket, Ray LaMontagne), Nashs rousing new collection, Ozarker, is indeed an ode to his roots, but more than that, its a meditation on love and family, on the beauty and the pain we pass down through generations, on the ties that bind us through good times and bad. The music here harkens back to the heartland rock that Nash grew up onPetty, Springsteen, Segerwith larger-than-life guitars and anthemic melodies, and the lyrics are similarly cinematic, painting captivating portraits of everyday men and women doing their best to get by with dignity and self-respect. Some of the characters come directly from Nashs own family history, others from second-hand accounts, but all share a distinctly Midwestern resilience, their hopes and dreams and triumphs and failures rendered with great tenderness and empathy. It would be easy for Nash to mythologize the place he comes from, to render judgment on the landscape and its people with the benefit of distance and hindsight, but Ozarker instead presents honest, intimate snapshots of its subjects, resisting the urge to romanticize the past and never losing sight of the humanity at the heart of it all.I think the reason so much of that classic heartland rock and roll endures is because it touches on themes we all feel so deeply, says Nash. Desire, struggle, commitment, escape. As an artist, Im always aspiring to touch as many people as possible, and thats what this music has always represented for me.
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