BLUES WITH 808 BEATS

With programmed drums, samples and a renewed sense of purpose, Buffalo Nichols ponders what blues might have been on The Fatalist.

- JIM BEAUGEZ

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 The Fatalist, Nichols peppers his lyrically driven songs with slide licks, natural harmonics and other tricks he's learned playing rock, metal, bluegrass and blues.

"I thought if I could bring all the old and the new together, it might help people understand the blues," he says. "That's what I was talking about with regard to the gentrification of the music. I wanted to just imagine what the music would sound like if it stayed relevant."

After spending a spell in Austin, Texas, during which he recorded and toured behind his 2021 self-titled debut album, the Milwaukee native returned to his hometown to retrench and explore creative paths he had previously abandoned. The Fatalist took shape around expanded instrumentation, such as fingerstyle guitar on "The Difference" and fiddle on "The Long Journey Home." But listeners looking for extended soloing might be surprised by Nichols' restraint, at least on his studio work.