I’m not gonna lie. I am more than a little obsessed with Mr. Nick Curran. Maybe it’s because he grew up less than an hour from where I grew up (Sanford, Maine). Maybe it’s because he mixed old school blues & rockabilly with punk aesthetics. Maybe it’s because he released 5 of the best God-dammed Rn’R records in the last 15 years.
Nick started out as a teenager performing with his fathers band “Mike Curran & the Tremors”. He hooked up with rockabilly legend Ronnie Dawson and toured with him for 6 months. He then moved to Dallas and eventually recorded “Fixin Your Head in 2000. In order to make his music more authentic and reproduce the retro 50’s jump-blues, Nick recorded most of his music on vintage equipment. Nick’s third album Doctor Velvet, highlighted by his cover of the Sonic’s “Shot Down”, was released in 2003. My personal favorite though has to be 2010’s Reform School Girl. To lift a quote from AMG, “Reform School Girl” sounds like something along the lines of Little Richard backed by the Misfits with Phil Spector recording the proceedings in his garage”. I couldn’t have said it any better. This would be his last album. Nick tragically died of cancer in 2012 at the age of 35. Nick was just getting started and he had so much more music to give to the world. Below are two of my favorite songs from “Reform School Girl” (and in a nod of respect, my blog avatar is Nick’s Little Richard hand tattoo)
Nick Curran & The Lowlifes – Sheena’s Back
Nick Curran & The Lowlifes – Filthy
