Nick Shoulders and The Okay Crawdad Live at Duling Hall on February 29

meet Nick Shoulders and the Okay Crawdad

All Bad, the latest album from Nick Shoulders, ultimately encapsulates everything that makes Shoulders’ inimitable form of country music so vital: a heady balance of dazzling musicianship and punk defiance, coupled with gritty eccentricity and a generational connection to the roots of the genre. With a singing style inherited from his family’s vocal lineage, Nick’s songs achieve the rare feat of imparting difficult truths while inciting a certain joyful abandon, balancing a sound forged by years of hard travel with a heartfelt reverence for the origins of country music.

In the spirit of Hazel Dickens and Jimmy Driftwood, the incisive yet wildly jubilant All Bad vocally objects to the reckless destruction of the natural landscape and development run rampant, while still offering plenty of joy and dance-ready rhythms. Spanning a variety of early country styles, the album’s infectious harmonies shine alongside everything from jangling cajun waltzes to surf-rock infused bluesy ballads–all tied together by a voice seemingly out of place in this century, yet ever ready to speak up about its problems.

After forming in early 2018, the ‘Okay Crawdad’ band flourished briefly in the wildly talented south Louisiana alt-country scene, culminating in the release of ‘Rather Low’ by the popular YouTube channel Western AF, catapulting Nick’s songs to a vastly wider audience right as Covid-19 and lockdowns ensued. Since then, a rapid ascension into the world of touring music has seen Nick playing alongside the likes of Sierra Ferrell and at major festivals such as Stagecoach. With the hard rhythms and heavenly melodies of their newest release, All Bad, the band manages to concoct a body of work that is at turns sublimely freewheeling and profoundly illuminating, yet primed to permanently warp the listener’s perspective to glorious effect.

Ahead of Nick Shoulders is Holy Locust as direct support for the night. Holy Locust is a five-piece acoustic folk band, that seamlessly blends punk music’s raw energy and ideals with refined folk traditions from around the world. Far-flung from home and steeped in the myriad of their worldly adventures, Holy Locust, in sound, embodies chaos tamed. Anywhere from street corners in Mexico to pubs in Ireland, they bring a riveting collaboration of acoustic punk, New Orleans jazz, and traditional folk music, carrying the folk tradition of resistance and equality.

See Holy Locust and Nick Shoulders with The Okay Crawdad on Thursday, February 29th, 2024.

Doors – 6:30pm | Show – 7:30pm

Listen to them on Spotify to get a sneak peek of what you’ll be seeing on February 29 live at Duling Hall!

Our friends at Saltine Restaurant serve a food menu from doors to showtime and provide a full bar with signature cocktails throughout the entire event.

Duling Hall is an Independent Venue that welcomes all music lovers.