Nathan Bowles

Nathan Bowles Announces Plainly Mistaken via NPR Music.

On his playfully subversive fourth solo album, Nathan Bowles extends his acclaimed banjo and percussion practice into the full-band realm for the first time, showcasing both delicate solo meditations and smoldering, swinging ensemble explorations. Hear “The Road Reversed” via NPR Music and read Bill Callahan’s thoughts on dolphins. “Like Coltrane, Bowles tears open a tiny piece of fabric in the folk music continuum to let in the cosmic debris.” – NPR

Nathan Bowles: Plainly Mistaken (PoB-043)

Bowles extends his acclaimed banjo and percussion practice into the full-band realm for the first time, showcasing both delicate solo meditations and smoldering, swinging ensemble explorations featuring Casey Toll (Jake Xerxes Fussell, Mt. Moriah) on double bass and Rex McMurry (CAVE) on drums. As he considers the cycles of deceit and self-deception that shape both our personal and political lives, a mixed mood of melancholy and merriment permeates Bowles’s own compositions as well as the interpretive material.

PoB + TiM = Trouble in Paradise.

Trouble in Mind and PoB, in cooperation with the venerable Chicago venue the Empty Bottle, are proud to present Trouble in Paradise, a three-day festival (Sept. 13-15) showcasing a simpatico sampling of both record labels’ critically acclaimed and wide-ranging international rosters. The lineup, which features an array of artists including The Weather Station, Gun Outfit, Nap Eyes, Itasca, James Elkington, JX Fussell & Nathan Bowles, among many others, explores the shared terrain between the respective realms of one label named for a classic blues song and another named for a Melville story.

National Humanities Center Events in NC.

Friends in North Carolina and beyond, you might consider attending some of the programming we’ve curated at the NHC, Sept. 27–29 as part of a project entitled North Carolina: The New American Heartland. Featuring Jake Xerxes Fussell and Nathan Bowles, in addition to many friends and other folks—ranging from Mykki Blanco and Mary Lattimore to filmmaker Ross McElwee and novelist Allan Gurganus—this gathering considers the state’s contemporary expressive culture in the context of current political crises, through the lenses of Music, Food, and Storytelling.

Spotify Playlists from the PoB Family.

Attention friends! We have three excellent new entries into the pantheon of Paradise of Bachelors Spotify playlists: “Spring Shadows: Sounds and scenes for unpacking in the rain” by Nathan Bowles, “Nigel on the letter B”, by Nigel Chapman of Nap Eyes, and “Summer’s Hear: Songs & Tunes of Heat & Delight,” by none other than Jake Xerxes Fussell. Follow us on Spotify so you can stay updated on new PoB singles, artist playlists, and more.

Jake Xerxes Fussell What In the Natural World Release Day + Show at Nightlight.

Alongside the release of the album today, the Oxford American has featured an interview, with a special emphasis on the fifth track, “Bells of Rhymney.” Fussell will head out on a spring UK and EU tour co-headlining with Daniel Bachman, followed by a summer US tour with Joan Shelley. He celebrates the album release with a full-band performance at the Nightlight in Chapel Hill today, March 31.

Nathan Bowles Premieres “the i in silence” for Our First 100 Days.

Our friends (and distributors) at the Secretly Group are assembling a durational 100-track compilation to benefit a variety of worthy organizations involved in the resistance against the current oppressive political regime in the U.S. Today, for Day 58, Nathan Bowles has premiered “the i in silence,” a riveting addition to his growing catalog of solo banjo meditations.

Jake Xerxes Fussell Jumps for Joy.

Hear album opener “Jump for Joy,” a gorgeously transformed Duke Ellington cover featuring Nathan Bowles, via Flood Magazine. Jake opens for Wilco in NYC this month, followed by a US tour with Joan Shelley and Nathan Salsburg, and then an EU/UK tour with Daniel Bachman. What in the Natural World is out March 31, when he’ll celebrate with a full-band record release show in Chapel Hill, NC.

Michael Chapman Profiled on NPR’s Morning Edition.

Thanks very much to NPR’s Morning Edition and Joel Rose for this morning’s lovely story on Michael Chapman, in which the Fully Qualified Survivor, along with producer Steve Gunn and critic Andrew Male, looks back at his long career and discusses why Yorkshiremen are cheap, how his career started with a rainstorm, why he never sings sober, and his moving, universally acclaimed new record 50 (which you can order, and hear, below.)

Mind Over Mirrors: Undying Color Release Day + Our First 100 Days.

If you require a mind-expanding tonic to our national spell of ignorant, truculent insanity, the new Mind Over Mirrors album Undying Color is available today in your favorite record shops and online merchants, digital and physical alike. Listen, read critical acclaim for the album, learn about Secretly Group’s Our First 100 Days Project, and catch up on current and upcoming PoB tours.