if you’re not familiar with the homespun music of nathan k. (Nathan Klages) then it is about time you take a few minutes and sit back and absorb the work-a-day music of this incredible michigan-based singer/songwriter. nathan’s soulfully wholesome album ‘dishes’ came out this summer, from which the beautiful track, “ghost” is taken. after the jump check out the dit session #24 for the previous mentioned track. how mr. k captures so much raw emotional tumult is both heart wrenching and a total explosion of happy/sad tears all at the some time. for more, check out nathan k.’s bob seger video and shiver at it’s majesty and grace. it’s as if every time nathan picks up a guitar and sets his honest mouth and accompanies the mercurial michigan clime, the airwaves rattle with the bones of truth. peace.

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Fellow Michigander Nathan K. recently dropped his spectacular Dishes LP and if you haven’t treated yourself to a listen then you’re missing out. I had the pleasure, and honor, of reviewing the full album before its official release. This album is well stocked with tender, yet dazzling songwriting.

This is an album that happens when someone loses an important link in their life. Nathans grandfather passed recently, and it is easy to imagine how many of these songs are the result his loss. So, on its face this is a collection of songs about heartache, but it also about taking that heartache and turning it into songs of reflection.  In the end it is also ultimately about refection, and finding one’s resolve to, if not rise above it, then to cope as best you can. In the end these are songs paying homage and honoring those who leave us while we still envision having them in our lives.Yes, we carry on without their physical presence. We go about the daily rigors of life with a loved one’s remembrance stitched permanently in our hearts. The album opens with the tranquil, “For Your Own Good” and the songs speak of frustration, youthful angst, well-intentioned advice, and perhaps a need to accept one’s doubtful compulsion towards personal destiny.

For Your Own Good lyrics

I was stopped on the side of the highway. I was stopped on the side of the road. I guess I was going too fast. I guess I was going too fast for my own good. He let me go with only a warning. He let me go with only these words. (He said) Son you should try to relax. Son you should try to relax for your own good. I spent the whole day just sitting in silence. I spent the whole day with the radio off. I couldn’t think of a good song to sing. I couldn’t think of a single good thing to save my life. It’s been so long since I stared at a sunset. I was a kid last time I really felt that, the world is a beautiful place. And I guess it’s a beautiful place but it’s hard to tell. And I get so tired of hearing my own voice. But I can’t never seem to want to seem to shut my mouth for shit. It makes me sick. I can’t stop thinking about what that cop said. I can’t stop thinking about what he told me. Said, “son you should try to relax”. And I really should try to relax for my own good.

It is songs like this which comprise a seemingly journal full of personal songs that flesh out the life stories and discoveries on full display within the Dishes album. There has been much written about this release, and with this writing I’ll further the accolades, simply because they are fully deserved. Nathan K. is singer/songwriter from Ypsilanti, Michigan, and he crafts songs that not only reflect the geographic and social landscape around him, but also how the aforementioned geographic and social landscape shapes his perception. The temperatures of his heart reflect the mercurial aspects of the seasons here, and his voice is a worthy conduit coloring our souls just as bright and dour as we are.  Peace.

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If one could take all the suffering and beauty of Michigan. Its many closed factories and depressed economy, contrast all the dark negative reality with the natural beauty found in the more rural aspects of our environs; the running rivers, those deep blue lakes, the white-tail deer, and the wild turkeys. Take all this and distill it into song. Nathan K. provides those songs, narrates our state of being into beautiful odes. Songs forlorn and gorgeous with hope and a relentless optimism. Watch the Xack Gibson directed video for Nathans’ song “Leave Them” from the forthcoming record Dishes, out June 26, 2012. Peace.

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