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Nolan McKelvey “A Matter of Time” (2009)
By Simon, on April 8th, 2010

Nolan’s album “A Matter of Time” is a cultured collection of 12 melodic roots pop songs, this his six full length features the man himself on guitars and vocals, with support from Tim Hogan (Bass, Vocals), Jeff Lusby (Guitars, Organ, Percussion),Ethan Rea (Drums) and Mike Seitz (Keyboards) and on the only non McKelvey original track #12 “Regarding Proposition (H)8” the additional vocals talents of the Beaver Street Choir.

The song writings excellent throughout, the tracks are a mix of the personal with some social commentary in the mix too on Regarding Proposition (H)8 and my favourite track Sign of the Times , a subject I empathise with as Nolan’s bemoans how our towns and cities are de-personalised – “Another big box store so we can be like every other town. The same colors, the same shapes, the same names and the same sounds“

A former stalwart of the Boston music scene McKelvey played with alt-country bands the Resophonics and the Benders and has opened for a range of performers including Bob Dylan, The Cowboy Junkies and Fred Eaglesmith, picking up a numbers of awards and accolades on his way, now living in Flagstaff AZ, his latest album was produced by Jeff Lusby at the Studio Retrograde and is available to buy at CD Baby.

CD REVIEW: Nolan McKelvey - A Matter Of Time
By Don Sechelski - 12/28/2009 - 11:46 AM EST
Artist: Nolan McKelvey
Album: A Matter Of Time
Website: http://www.nolanmckelvey.com
Genre: alt-country/rock
Technical Grade: 10/10
Production/Musicianship Grade: 10/10
Commercial Value: 10/10
Overall Talent Level: 10/10
Songwriting Skills: 10/10
Best Songs: All We Ever Needed, Sign Of The Times, Song of Hope, Grave Digging
CD Review:

So I got this CD in the mail from another singer/songwriter, there must be a million of them out there. Slipped the disc into the CD player and OH MY GOD, this guy is awesome. Immediately I went to Google to research Nolan McKelvey. The CD, A Matter Of Time, has been a constant fixture in my CD player since.

Turns out, Nolan McKelvey was a stalwart of the Boston alt-country scene for a number of years playing with bands such as the Resophonics and the Benders. I didn’t even know Boston had an alt-country scene. He has opened for the likes of Bob Dylan, Sugarland, Derek Trucks, Peter Rowan, and Bela Fleck. He's since moved to Flagstaff, Arizona and put out several albums, the latest of which, A Matter Of Time, is a riveting piece of work.

McKelvey is joined on A Matter Of Time by Tim Hogan on bass and backing vocals, Jeff Lusby on a variety of instruments including electric and acoustic guitars. Ethan Rea adds drums and Mike Seitz plays a variety of keys. McKelvey, himself, wrote all the songs but one, sings lead vocal, and plays guitar. A Matter Of Time was produced by Jeff Lusby and it was a masterful job.

The first thing that grabbed my attention about A Matter Of Time was the lyrical depth. Insightful observations and fascinating turns of phrase abound. The first cut, All We Ever Needed, is a social commentary on the state of America’s relationship with the rest of the world. “Used to be the only thing to fear was fear itself, Somehow in 70 years we’ve learned to fear everybody else.” He goes on to say, “Even if all the institutions fall, we still got something to believe in. Lookin’ back as far as I recall, each other was all we ever needed.” McKelvey’s vocal is plaintive and heartfelt, very reminiscent of Dylan at his best.

The second cut, Sign Of The Times, bemoans the homogenization of America. “Another big box store so we can be like every other town. The same colors, the same shapes, the same names and the same sounds.” Lusby’s lead guitar cuts like a knife and is the perfect complement to McKelvey’s cutting lyric. This is music that will make you sit up and take notice. My favorite line of the CD is in Song Of Hope. McKelvey sings, “When you are delivered, the bright lights shinin’ in your eyes, There’s a difference to consider between what’s shiny and what shines.” Wow, that’s a great line!

Nolan McKelvey is a major talent. His songs are honest, true, and incredibly insightful. A Matter Of Time is a tour de force. Lusby’s production, an excellent array of supporting musicians and McKelvey’s serious songwriting skills combine to create something that is more than the sum of it’s parts. You can’t go wrong picking up A Matter of Time. Now I’ve got to check out McKelvey’s other releases.

Nolan McKelvey- A Matter Of Time

Americana Rock Mix: Episode 59 – A Chilly Atmosphere

Our Americanaroots Podman of the Board Von recently turned me on to a couple new artists on his show Americana Rock Mix. One was Nolan McKelvey. Von played a couple of tunes from his 2009 album A Matter Of Time and I had to hear more, so I got my ears on a copy of the whole disc. Nolan spent time with among others,the Boston based band The Benders but is now on his own and calls Flagstaff Arizona home.

What draws me to his music is Nolan’s voice. It has something extra to it; a certain inflection or geographically unrecognizable twang that would let him fit in playing in Boston, or Texas, or Tennessee, and apparently Arizona! His voice really shines on the tune Fireflies. Nolan’s tunes on the disc are a mix of softer ballads (The Best Is Yet To Come) and lively head-bopping tunes with more hook to them than most of the Americana I’ve listened to lately. The disc opens with the catchy tune All We Ever Needed, which “caught” me right away. Other standouts include Entwined; Song of Hope, Song of Joy; and the closer Regarding Proposition (H)8.

Folk on the disc include Nolan, guitar, vocals; Tim Hogan, bass and vocals; Jeff Lusby, electric and acoustic guitars, organ, vocals; Ethan Rea, drums; and Mike Sweitz on Wurlitzer, Organ and Rhodes. This is an excellent disc by a seasoned singer, songwriter and performer. I certainly look forward to following his career and look forward to any future releases by Nolan. Check him out!

The end of last year and the early part of this year have been extremely busy for me. I put in some extra hours at both of my jobs, and spent a great deal of time re-listening to music from the past year and the past decade. In fact, I spent so much time working on my year end list, my decade list, and the year end mix CD that my wife and I make every year (complete with six pages of liner notes) that I haven't taken much time to catch up on any new music that's come my way or look ahead to anything that's on the horizon.

I'd like to do some of that today.

My biggest sin lately has been neglecting my inbox over at ReviewShine. ReviewShine is a tremendous resource for bloggers where (mostly unknown) artists can post their music for bloggers to sample and download. I've discovered some great artists there including Boca Chica, Madison Violet, Kelly Mannix, and several others.

Recently though, I went roughly two months without listening to anything from the site. When I logged back on last week, I had 40 or 50 albums waiting for me. I'm slowly trying to work my way through them to pick out the best stuff to share. I've already found a few that show some promise, and one such artist is singer-songwriter Nolan McKelvey.

I don't know much about Nolan other than to say he is a singer/songwriter from the Boston area who now resides in Arizona. During his time in the Northeast, Nolan developed a solid reputation in the region, and his bands were nominated for seven Boston Music Awards. He may also have once accidentally stolen songwriter Kris Delmhorst's accordion.

His new album Matter of Time came out late last year, and is full of catchy folk/pop tunes that immediately grabbed my attention. The song I'm sharing with you here is the lead track on the album, "All We Ever Needed."

Nolan McKelvey: All We Ever Needed (Buy Album)

Top 20 Albums -Terry's list

The Damnwells - One Last Century
Avett Brothers - I and You and Love
Monsters of Folk - Monsters of Folk
Nolan McKelvey - A Matter of Time
Neko Case - Middle Cyclone
Bob Dylan - Together Through This
John Doe and the Sadies - Country Club
Ian Hunter - Man Overboard
Will Hoge - The Wreckage
The Duke & The King - Nothing Gold Can Stay
Paolo Nutini - Sunny Side Up
M. Ward - Hold Time
Tim Easton - Porcupine
Madison Violet - No Fool for Trying
Leeroy Stagger - Everything is Real
Elvis Costello - Secret, Profane & Sugercane
Griffin House - Flying Upside Down
Carolyn Mark and NQ Arbuckle - Let's Just Stay Here

After three years together, the Muskellunge boys have finally put out a studio album. The superb 11-track Gather at the River is a collection of originals (save for two traditional instrumentals) by the band's frontman, singer-songwriter and hometown hero Nolan McKelvey. A veteran of a heap of great roots-Americana bands both in the Southwest and in Boston, McKelvey has been writing well heard, and road-worn songs for more than a decade. A few years ago he returned to a more rootsy-bluegrass sound with Muskellunge and released the live album, Pickin' in the Pines, a tight set recorded live during the second year of the festival. Featuring banjo picker Frank Dedera, bassist Tim Hogan and mandolinist Aaron Tyler, the band laid down the tracks for Gather at the River with local recording guru Jeff Lusby at his Radio Dog Studio last winter and spring while the tireless McKelvey simultaneously worked on a forthcoming solo album. Most of the album was recorded in two halves, with McKelvey and Hogan laying down a single live track while Tyler and Dedera filled in with a second instrumental track later. The method maintains the band's tight and warm live vibe while displaying the instruments with crystallized clarity. And, last May, before completion of the album, NPR's "Car Talk" used the McKelvey original "Drive Up the Mountain," now featured on Gather at the River, for one of the show's car-themed musical interludes, garnering early interest in the project. Gather at the River's first track, "High Country," is an up-tempo romper that provides a tidy thesis statement for the whole album and displays McKelvey's greatest skill: writing poetic and catchy anthems that concisely summarize the beauty and sublime unattainable meanings of our individual sense of place. For him, that place is northern Arizona and Gather at the River is full of original songs that capture the flavor and mystery of why people settle where they settle, and how those people are often picked by their place. McKelvey fills the mountain West's role as a working man's poet laureate every bit as much as Bruce Springsteen is the hard-times spokesmen for his native New Jersey. And no, that isn't just hyperbole. McKelvey's songs both celebrate the majesty and the people of the West as well as its notable downsides. The album's fourth track, "Priced out of Town," is the songwriter's finest and most acute social statement of his career thus far, as he laments the conversion of picturesque locales to second-home dotted playgrounds of the rich, beyond the reach of the normal American income. Sound familiar? McKelvey sings: "Well, I'm an honest man and I make an honest buck, I've been banking on hope and I've been banking on luck. As the prices go up, the applications turned down. Can't even borrow enough from getting priced out of my town." The 10th track on Gather at the River is a very welcomed re-recording of "Cheers to the First Snow," a classic McKelvey ode to the change of seasons and the sedentary comfort in replacing summertime adventures with the barroom communion of the winter months. Musically, the river-themed Gather features three of the finest players in the Southwest: banjo player Frank Dedera, formerly of legendary bluegrass band Flying South, fleet-fingered mandolin wiz Aaron Tyler and the perpetually solid and tasteful Tim Hogan on bass and backing vocals. While McKelvey's songs form the foundation of the band, it's the virtuosic musicality present in the foursome that truly makes Muskellunge a classic Flagstaff band and one that thankfully has put down its distinctive sound on record once again. Bravo boys!

I received a copy of Nolan McKelvey's The Sound of the Crash in the mail last week. Without reservation - I loved this record! If you like Peter Bruntnell, Ryan Adams, Joe Pernice et.al. you will also love this record. I'm adding 6 tracks to the Cosmic American Radio playlist later today so listen up. I must confess, as a music junkie, I was unaware of Mr. McKelvey until last week. Where have I been?