FRANZ NICOLAY? That name sounds familiar. Ah yes, got it, he’s the moustachioed geezer best known for the classy boogie piano lines and excitable backing vocals with Brooklyn’s The Hold Steady. Quite a character.
Turns out he’s a well-connected character too. I wasn’t aware of it until recently, but he quit THS at the end of last year: probably because he couldn’t give them enough of his time if his CV is anything to go by. It also reveals that he plays with, er, punk orchestra World/Inferno Friendship Society and over the last year he’s also released his debut solo album (‘Major General’) and a short story collection with the immortal title ‘Complicated Gardening Techniques. Unless you’re a workaholic like Guided By Voices’ Robert Pollard, it’s the kind of frenetic activity that just reading about it makes you want to have a lie down.
Franz, however, is keen to keep upping the ante. His second solo album ‘Luck and Courage’ is already ‘in the can’, as they say. It’s an unlikely ‘concept’ album of sorts, in that it centres around the titular main characters Felix & Adelita (the names mean ‘Luck’ and ‘Courage’ respectively in Spanish, apparently) and this is the story of their “nation of two” as they struggle to decide whether they want to settle down or continually pack up and move on in nomadic American style.
That might read like an erudite, Kurt Vonnegut-influenced conceit, but ultimately ‘Luck and Courage’ is about the human condition and if you enjoy great storytellers in Rock (I’m thinking along the lines of, say, Stan Ridgway here) you’ll find plenty to enjoy here.
Nicolay’s address book is impressive. The band on ‘Luck and Courage’ pivots around drummer Brian Viglione (The Dresden Dolls), bassist Yula Be-eri (World/ Inferno Friendship Society), pianist Maria Sonovytsky (The Debutante Hour) and Son Volt’s pedal steel player Mark Spencer and they play intuitively. Stylistically, the album adroitly avoids easy pigeonholes. The Hold Steady’s hard-edged Rock’n’Roll is rarely on the menu, though while Nicolay shares a label with several Alt. Country-tinged heroes (Chuck Prophet, Richmond Fontaine), it’s too simplistic to describe ‘Luck and Courage’ as merely another Americana-based record either.
The opening ‘Felix & Adelita’ introduces the record’s chief protagonists with Nicolay emoting “she called him Felix, ‘cos it was lucky...he was a middle-distance runner.” It morphs into a wordy, if world-weary epic based around organ, tambourine and banjo.
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You’ll hear a lot more of that banjo along the way. Songs like ‘Z for Zachariah’, ‘Anchorage (New Moon Baby)’ and the confessional ‘This is Not a Pipe’ (“all the lies I’ve ever told will come back to me one day”) are sparse, touching narratives, though ‘Anchorage’ has a welcome stridency which could almost be described as ‘celebratory’ by the time it reaches a climax. It’s on first-name terms with idiosyncrasy, though, as tracks like ‘James Ensor Redeemed’ or the immortally-titled ‘Last Words of Gene Autry’ make abundantly clear.
Still, the quixotic sonic approach does a good job in keeping you on your toes. ‘Have Mercy’, for example, could almost be The Bad Seeds with its’ lightning bursts of guitars and drums, strings raining down on you and what sounds like a passing chapter of Gregorian monks roped in for additional drama. ‘My Criminal Uncle’ is an even more unlikely success, opening with what sounds like a cabaret brass fanfare, hitting its’ stride like an American Madness before it changes tack entirely come the chorus. It ends on an upbeat note with Felix & Adelita reaching a resolution of sorts on the closing title track (“it’s easy to be kind when your heart has a purpose”) and the band making suitably celebratory noises.
Although Nicolay’s overheating vocals and his band’s inherent ability to swing can grab you by the lapels, ‘Luck & Courage’ is, ultimately, one of those slow-burners which grow pleasantly with repeated plays. It might not automatically get all Hold Steady fans onside, but the open-minded will find it worth taking a leap of faith for.
Franz Nicolay website
decor Records online
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