North Carolina born and currently residing in Nashville, Nathan Evans Fox sometimes talks about “accent”. Not just the way you talk, but how you react to certain things, how you behave, even some of your values. The French use the word “terroir” similarly to describe what’s imparted by a place of origin. Fox decided to be a little more driven by his accent in his latest album, Wasted Love. There’s plenty of his folk music roots, but he also layers in some good country music and a little pop, because who’s not a little influenced by what’s popular.
Carolina Boy is a modern country ballad about how complicated the relationship can be when you’re from a small town. Mercedes Benz is in a similar style, with an added bit of funk, about having to sometimes just take life one step at a time. That same touch of R&B also shows up in These Four Walls, a country pop tune where home is a lot more than your physical surroundings. Damn Hard is a southern rock, blue collar protest song about the fact life is, you know, damn hard. A clipped cymbal calls to mind a ringing hammer on a nail while Fox’s boyhood friend Michael Harris injects the blues with some nice slide. Good Trucks is a fun little number that’s not about trucks so much as the values Fox holds dear.
Fox’s recently passed grandmother, Mawmaw, delivers an over-sized influence on the record. What’s Intended is an introspective folk song about slowly losing the little memories that make a person’s spirit human. Some Things Are Coming Back Again touches on how taking stock of what you still have that’s important is a vital part of getting past grief. Wasted Love finishes up the CD with an ode to having so much love for someone you can waste it on them. It’s mostly solo piano, with just subtle accompaniment from keys and percussion, and that simplicity really drives the message home.
Between losing his grandmother, the East Nashville tornado taking a piece of his roof off, and then the pandemic, Nathan Evans Fox could have put out a record rich in melancholy and pain. Instead, he pulled deep on his own roots and wraps a positive outlook around a bunch of stories about where he’s from, literally and figuratively. Set to a musical score of southeastern Americana styles, Wasted Love is an outstanding effort.
About the author: I've actually driven from Tehatchapee to Tonopah. And I've seen Dallas from a DC-9 at night.