NATHANIEL RILEY

If there is a defining characteristic of Fort Collins, Colorado singer/songwriter Nathaniel Riley it is that he writes and plays for the sake of the song. Period. In this, he is entirely focused and you can hear that intent. His music is thoughtful, sometimes sparse and sometimes lush in its soundscape. Just as the COVID pandemic gripped the world, he sat down with Darren Garvey, producer of Riley’s latest release Bird Songs, to begin the process of building his record. Riley remembers that their collaborative focus was singular, “We had to ask ourselves, ‘Why are we doing this?’ and the answer was easy, we were doing it for what music gives to us.” With that, preproduction of the new record started in the summer of 2020. Together, the two fleshed out the bones of songs as they picked guitars on porches. Live tracking began in the fall and in addition to Garvey on drums, they gathered a sympathetic group of musicians made up of Bridget Law (fiddle), and Charlie Rose (banjo, pedal steel) from Elephant Revival as well as Steve Varney from Gregory Alan Isakov’s band on banjo, and Emma Rose lent harmonies just to name a few.

The beauty that Riley and his intensely talented collective produced in Bird Songs is the musical reminder that hope and light always shine through times of adversity. The title track is a perfect example. “Bird Songs” begins with a crash of sound, like an exclamation point without a sentence.That crash fades giving way to lush acoustic textures punctuated with banjo and fiddle runs. It is Riley’s voice that stars here, however. His lyrics are a letter to a person he loves from a place that he loves and wants to share. The simplicity of the song’s intent becomes its immediate appeal. And on the LP there are 14 tracks with that same intent and appeal.