CARL NICHOLS ISN’T here to “save the blues,” whatever that means. Rather, on The Fatalist (Fat Possum), his second and latest album of blues-rooted music as Buffalo Nichols, he wanted to envision what the genre might sound like today if it “hadn’t been hijacked and trapped in amber,” he says.
Considering the evolution of traditionally Black music forms in the past half-century, especially the emergence and development of hip-hop, the logical next step in Nichols’ neotraditionalist approach was to incorporate drum programming, samples and synths into his resonator blues. Songs like “You’re Gonna Need Somebody on Your Bond” make use of all of the above. Nichols performs the Blind Willie Johnson slide blues as ghostly samples of blues pioneer Charley Patton hover in the periphery, held in place by synth washes. This isn’t a firm stylistic crossover, though; throughout , Nichols peppers his lyrically driven songs with slide licks, natural harmonics and other tricks
