This episode is also available as video on YouTube.

You can visit Nora Jones channel and be sure to subscribe while you're there.

Hey, I'm Norah Jones and today I'm playing along with Nathaniel Rightlift.

I'm just playing lo weusy.

I'm just playing lone uzy.

Hi.

Welcome to the show.

I'm Norah Jones and this is Sarah Oda.

Hello.

Hello.

We have a very awesome episode today.

We have Grammy Award winning singer, songwriter and bandleader Nathaniel Rateliff and his band is Nathaniel Rightliff and the Night Sweats, which is the best band name ever.

That's a great band name.

He's released several solo albums and then released The Night Sweats self titled debut album in twenty fifteen.

His latest album came out in twenty twenty four called South of Here, and alongside a steady run of touring with the band, we.

Had so much fun.

Every time time I hear his music, I stop and I listen and I'm so happy, Like if I hear it on the radio or something, it just always feels so good.

I know, I was so happy he could do this.

I know it's his songs are like stories.

Yeah, and his voice is incredible and it's just it was really fun.

Yeah, this one was great.

In this episode, you're going to hear about his sort of unexpected journey to discovering who he is as an artist.

You're also going to hear about the art of doing the cover song, which can be tricky sometimes.

And as always, there's beautiful duet performances.

And this episode has extra songs in it.

Yeah, it has a lot more lot of songs tuned here it is.

Enjoy the episode with Nathaniel Rightliff, all right, all right.

We got.

I'll wait till I stopped doing the lip drill.

Hey music, here we go.

All right.

I hear the sound it's going through my brain.

I hear talk of the people.

I feel little fall and ring.

I see a man crying cause the whole world has let him down.

Kids are laughing in funny faces over clown.

My mind is like a spring in the clock.

He wonn un why.

I can't see, I can't think, I can't feel long out of time.

I'm lumping now down.

Tell me where is it gone to me?

You see it starts at the beginning.

Of the end.

My friend.

I hear thunder, and I can feel the wind.

I can see angry faces, the eyes.

As a man, and don't forging where can lay bleeding on the ground.

And there's no please on and slamming.

We can be fine.

Solby stabbings and shootings and young men dying all around, and it keeps golding through my brain.

I can steal Look you the sound.

I hear talking of people.

The world is going and safe.

Oh this level is.

The falling ray.

Old left is the falling ray.

And oh, d left is the falling ring.

That was awesome.

Yeah, yeah, I like that.

What a great tune, such a good The whole record is good, so good.

I love that record.

It took me a while to find that one.

Actually, I was given that at Richard Swift's memorial service.

Really yeah.

People were instructed to like, bring a piece of vinyl and exchange it with somebody else.

Oh wow, what a beautiful way to yeah and do that.

A lot of people forgot.

But then a really close friend of Richard's gave me a copy of that, and he's like, you know, this is one Richard's favorite records.

You didn't know yet.

I didn't know it.

I knew link ray from like Yeah Rumble.

Don't Yeah, Yeah, yeah, yeah do such a killer three chord song.

Is the best, the best.

I remember.

I knew that because I used to like I got my first little Fender champ, like a silver faced one, like vibro champ from my uncle from Big Iron, my uncle Alarney, and I would just like play that on everything on tin that's great, you know, and then play to Rumble.

I think that's the best song for a new guitar player to learn.

You're slaying.

Yeah, it just feels like you're doing it.

Yeah, and even that little figure is not hard to get.

I'm like, I'm not going to attempt it right now.

You can do it.

You can go go yeah like a total ship.

Yeah, but yeah you just.

Yeah.

But it's also fun to just put like noise canceling headphones on now and listen to that record, and if you have headphones on, you can tell that, like the main vocal is just done over a scratch.

Take the double yeah, okay, doubles just.

I love the double Yeah, that totally makes sense.

But it doesn't line up, like it's really messy.

Like I think the whole record is so cool and viby and actually sounds rad but it's just so messy, And I think it's a great example of music doesn't have to It never has to be perfect, you know, like matter.

If it's not.

Yeah, well people haven't, like I feel like a lot of young people and I certainly did, like I had an expectation of what like a recording experiences is supposed to be.

Yeah, but it really is about like feel and fun, you know, like if you're having a good time, it's probably going to be what you want.

It's about the emotion, capturing the emotions.

Yeah, yeah, and it can be messy, but I also.

Feel like there's a way to make your voice very emotive, and it's like you're going there without going there, yeah you know what I mean, Like you can sound away, like you don't have to cry on every take, but those are beautiful moments when they happen.

But I certainly had an expectation when I was younger that like everything had to have that kind of feeling, it had to like really mean something.

And I think it still gets across the emotions.

Well, if the emotion of the song is in you, you don't have to cut yourself exactly yeah, and bleed on the tape exactly, you know.

Yeah, yeah, I love that.

I was wondering if you wanted to talk about Richard Swift a little.

I'd love to.

I love Richard.

I think about him every day.

I actually carry like a little traveling of frenda and I have like I set up a polaroid to Richard and my father and like little trinkets and then oh wow, and some of it is a way that like when you're moving all the time, like then there's like there's a familiar sense, you know, it takes.

That sense of yeah, when you're traveling.

And then yeah, and I just like I like that I don't do anything like that.

No, I should just get something.

I should you know, I think I would enjoy it.

Yeah, yeah, the ritual.

That kind of stuff.

So but you know, I love flowers, and you know, at a certain point you can start to ask for things and it's not like a terrible thing to ask for.

It took me a long time.

To make flowers.

Yeah, you can ask for flowers in your green room.

So I just get to I get lilies every day, and so then those are all familiar sense that I really enjoy and they're like peaceful so like to where it can be chaotic, and you know, like I feel like it was hard to even ask for my own dressing room for a long time because then I felt like I was trying to.

Like because you're in a band, yeah yeah.

But I'm not trying to like exclude myself or elevate myself to a different place.

It's really like there's different things required of me, you know.

And like even though they had a realization the other day when I was doing something with the Colorado Symphony and it was like five guys in the band, like me and four of the guys in the band and then two other singers, and I like walked into the green room and everybody was there, and there's like four conversations going on, you know, tour managers asking me questions, production managers ask me questions, assistants asking me questions.

I was like, and I got to do a twenty minute vocal warm up, and I was like, I can't.

I can't actually be in this room.

There's like too much chaos, and like I have to find my center, you know.

Yeah, And I used to never really do that.

I used to just feel like I was like kind of spinning out a lot, you know, and so all those things are like ways to to find like some sort of peaceful spot then to move outward from there.

You know.

Background noise is a problem, I think.

Yeah, I can multitask, but I can't have multiple conversations at once.

Yeah, you know, like I can dovetail on the stove or do a bunch of things, but like conversation with music and my hearing's a little appropriate for my age and the amount of heavy equipment and loud stuff I've been around, so like, you know, it's not like terrible, but it gets too much at once, is like sense you overload from.

Yeah, it gets overwhelming.

The questions, the constant questions is hard too.

Yeah.

Yeah, sometimes you just want to be alone, like left alone.

When can I be alone?

I don't know, maybe later today.

I know it's one of the things I worry about having kids sometimes.

Oh yeah, no, they won't let you be alone.

But it's fun.

You know.

They're full of struggles too, but it's pretty fun.

Yeah.

But back to the Richard thing.

Richard, like it was just an interesting period in my life because I'd been like a singer songwriter for years and toured, and I was kind of ready to give up, you know.

And I had been a gardener, was doing fine gardening and landscaping and touring at the same time.

Wow.

But it was nice because I could come home and do a job I really liked.

I was good at it, and so and grew up doing a lot of that kind of work.

When I was supposed to be in high school as a janitor and a grounds for a high school.

So real, it was sort of like kind of like good real hunting.

But I wasn't like solving any math problems at night.

So but that movie is definitely written about me.

Oh and I remember I was just wanted to like create something that like I always love R and B in soul and I just started doing demos in my house.

And I was on tour with somebody who was friends with Richard.

I had met Richard briefly.

We crossed paths because of Delta Spirit when I was on tour with them and we were in the UK, and he happened to be there and popped in and we hung out in the green room and chatted and the years, you know, and then it would have been several years later that I was working on these demos just kind of as a way, like a song exploration with really no like they just you know, sometimes stuff just starts to show up.

It just starts to come out of you, and so you end up being like a conduit or the vessel.

Sorry, it's a very long winded explanation.

It's seven hour.

So I ended up getting connected with Richard again because a friend who was on tour with me gave me his number after I played her a couple of the demos.

She was like, you should send this to Richard.

I send it to him, and then I just got like a cold call in the middle of the night, middle of the night, well like late at night, like ten thirty, you know, and he was like, hey, it's Richard.

You know.

I was like, hey man, how's going.

Oh good, you know, just like listening.

He's pretty cool.

What's your process?

I was like, oh, like one mic and move around the room.

He's like, it's pretty much what I do.

That's cute.

Yeah, it's like it's like you're a junior high.

Yeah, it was oh yeah, it's like cong what do I do?

And I was like it is not what he does, you know.

And then we just started to talk.

And at the time I had also like I originally got signed around to records as a singer song right, and that sort of like when I went to Present, I had like, I don't know, twenty some odd songs for my second record, and I was really excited about those demos and always enjoyed the process of demoing stuff by myself.

It's hard to beat those, I think sometimes.

Yeah, the demo itis is a real thing.

I mean I prefer them.

I do too.

I usually use them.

I use them or sometimes I've started.

I found a trick that I would just if I like the demo so much and we weren't recreating it, I would be like, play the demo and I am going to use the demo as like a scratch, yeah, you know, and then kind of follow the feel on the movie, make it a little bit exactly.

And then so.

You know, I went to like present these demos to round of Records, and they just didn't get it, and so I was that record never got made through them.

I got dropped.

And then even my whole record first release was just like kind of you know it, it kind of got shelves.

You went to the spin cycle of the record business.

Yeah, and then you know, just like hard because I had a band, but I was like signed as a solo artist.

And then your band's like resentful as well because they're like I thought we were a band.

That's a whole other dynamic.

Nobody really realizes.

Yeah, it's a real thing.

And and labels aren't really good at like they don't care.

They're not trying to bring people together.

You know, there are a bunch of squares that they don't know how a lot of people get jobs in the industry.

But there are great people in the industry and I've been blessed to work with a lot of them.

And so then I like co produced and self released with the help of my management the next record.

And it was just a struggle, you know, and I like, it's like how long can you play small rooms and not get anywhere?

And it was just like the travel is hard.

At the time, I was married and I was raising my daughter, and then Concord came to me, which was funny because they had bought round her.

And then I got dropped.

Then they came back.

Yeah.

After I so I released one record on my own.

It was working on EP and then started the night sweat stuff, and I was I was really reluctant to work with them because you know, to get dropped from a label is just like heartbreaking when you you know, it's just really there.

And I feel like I always right at the start of the end of artists development, you know, where like they don't they don't nurture artists anymore if you can't have a blow up hit, Like I feel so much for people that are just like in the van doing the work because I did that for so long, and like most of my career until the past ten years was that, you know, but you need time to discover like who you are as a songwriter and as a performer, you know.

And I feel for the people that go from nothing to stadiums, you know, like, yeah, but.

Social media, they get enough followers and then all of a sudden they're in a stadium and they barely right out playing clubs.

But then it's even hard to like how you build your team and the people that surround you.

Then are you like only surrounded by yes people?

Are you only surrounded by people that are interested in the amount of revenue they can generate from you?

And yeah, and you know, bolster their own careers and their own finances.

So it's tricky, yeah, and there's like so many pitfalls to that, you know.

Yeah, but I ended up signing with Concord, and Concord also ever works with Stax Records, and so in the process of making the record with Richard, I was like, I, you know, like the Stacks catalog was a huge influence in the southern soul sound on that first record, and so it ended up coming out on Stacks and Matt Marshall was my A and R guy there together, and yeah, and Matt has always been really supportive.

That's the other is like with with Concord, They've never been like, we don't like this, go back, yeah, and go back and work on more.

I've just always been like, this is the record, this is what I want to do.

It's great, you know, And I don't think people get that a lot.

So I feel blessed on that.

So yeah, I feel lucky in that way too.

Yeah, it's tricky people chasing things.

That's not how I feel like music should be.

Yeah.

It's one thing to be inspired or ambitious, but it's another thing to chase something that isn't inspired, you know.

Quite.

I know.

We were talking about Richard and I just keep telling you far more information.

You know.

It was great.

It was a good like lead up to how it all happened, and then worked with him.

Then we met.

I met Richard and it was like I went out there alone because I didn't really The Night Sweats weren't a band.

It was just me and the Attic.

Yeah, Richard and I like it was like a kindred spirit immediately.

Yeah.

And he would even be like, oh, it's like you're my twin, you know, and I would like and we were like we were partying, like you know, like just drinking like not no drugs weed, He's not drugs, you know, and we just really drank.

We really went for it.

But that aside, like our our ability to work together in his his sens of melody and his ability in the studio to just like crank shit out because essentially we would like get a song done in four hours.

And you would just both play everything and yeah.

Yeah, I started off on drums as a kid, so I can play drums.

Rich could play drums, He would play keys, and then yeah, just play guitar and bass, and then we overdubbed horns later on, we didn't even have horns on.

That stuff like that record.

I think that's my favorite way to work.

Yeah, if you have the right chemistry.

That's how I work with.

Leon, Yeah, because you can work so fast.

Yeah, and it's just so and then it still sounds organic and sort of off the cuff even though it's all overdubbed kind of.

Have you done more than one record with Leon?

I did two records with the most recent one was him, But I mean we did have a band on a few songs and it was amazing, But I just I think.

Was that like Tommy and No I used.

My drummer, Brian Blade, but but it's really Leon on drums on more than half of the record.

Because the demos were fun and they sounded great, so we just didn't end up redoing them.

I love it.

Yeah, I think it's I think it's just such a fun way to work.

You know, there's good and there's bad things about having a lot of people in the room, you know, and I even like it could be magical, but it can be.

But sometimes too many cooks in the kitchen just makes for a terrible meal.

And and so sometimes the like the two voices and two ideas.

Yeah, that was The other funny thing is like the song that Richard first chose, Like the first day, it was like I felt like the door is song I brought in that was sort of like he was like, let's do this one, Like what yeah, you know.

But but now in hindsight, I realized it was like for the first day of getting comfortable together and getting sounds and and then you know, like from a producer's perspective, watching somebody else work and then trying to understand that now it makes a lot more sense than I did then.

Yeah, yeah, well that's cool.

What's that song you said, get used to the Night?

Yeah, you want to do that?

I do?

I do kind of relates, it.

Does trying to remember is it four or five?

This is from the newer album?

This is from yeah, and so this actually I after, you know, I started working on some songs that, like, during the second record I was doing with Richard, I was actually starting to go through a divorce as well, and there's some songs that like I'd played for Richard.

I was like, this is not for the night sweats, this is like something else, and he was like, whoa, it's like I like that He's like can never be too Nielsen, you know.

And so we had plans to make this like solo record after the second one, and he was going through separation as well, and we were both struggling with alcoholism.

Like we could disappear together and get hammered, or we would be each other's support systems too, you know.

Yeah, And so I ended up making that record without Richard after he passed away, and so I kind of wrote a lot of the songs from that space of like, like how do we recognize that brokenness that's in us that I feel it's like a part of human experience without letting it like take you.

Drag you back in.

Do you think that the part of that cycle with the addiction was writing songs out of it on a certain part of the circle.

I think I think the songs because in the way I write sometimes there can be a lot of stream of conscious stuff, and so you're not really aware of what you're talking about until you like take a step back and like hear what you're saying, and that can be heartbreaking to then see yourself in the lyrics in a way that you can't in your own life.

You know.

So there's some like lines in here that I feel like reference, Like the I used to stay home and writhe in my bed is like just about having delirium trimmers.

So and then even the title and the line get used to the night that, however crass it sounds, is like it's like it used to being dead.

So let's do this, let's I love it.

All right, here we go.

You used to get around, You found one.

One to get around and wanted to.

Get Now feel the name like sold man, he lost day.

He used to stay on and rise in my bed.

I wish I could retire.

Are you still hard with?

I used to do card whills to land on my head.

I used to annoy it all can mess man.

Used to be a proud fucking fool.

You running.

I cat man.

It's still so much love for me to.

Do you most name.

This ain't your town going wrong?

Down the one with I gotta hide myself.

From the storm.

I don't know how long I will.

You found some.

One to get around, and one again used to do all.

A got the black down just be time been used.

You could be sere that day used to solve.

I used to be you.

It used to now.

Could you see the name.

That's beautiful.

That's a beautiful song.

Thank you.

It's crazy knowing things about a song I'm hearing it, you know.

Well, it's funny because I feel like, you know, even like the writers I love, Like when I was growing up, you just didn't hear the inside scoop on a Bob Dylan song or Leonard Cohen or townsmand Zant.

You know, those are all like secrets.

And now the way we work is like everybody wants to know everything and.

They feel like they're entitled to it.

Yeah, and I'm happy to share it.

I think if you're happy to share it, then it's great.

Yeah.

But it's also like but like in terms of like social media, sometimes it feels so forced or like my least favorite thing to do is like an ep k oh yeah, and they're like, tell me what this song is about.

I was like, like, now, why don't you use your brain?

Yeah?

I was like, it took me a long time to forgos.

I have no education.

This is hard for me, you know, Like, but yeah, I don't know, It's it's funny.

I'm not really I'm not really into sharing what things are about usually, but it might be because I find some of the things either too personal obviously, but also some things might be not as deep as people might think it is.

Yeah exactly, but but I like I understand like there are certain like certainly in the past, I had written stuff where I was it was stuff I was having a hard time saying in my life.

Yeah, like you don't want to like give that away and you're electronic press kit.

No, no, you know what I mean to be, like, I'm struggling with my marriage and this and that, you know business.

Yeah exactly, Yeah, I know.

And also I think that sometimes it's a way to deal with that stuff without having to look at it or say it out loud.

I mean, it's like therapy in a way.

But it is songs.

You know, you're writing it to get out.

I remember I wrote a whole batch of songs once and I had no idea what I was writing until a year later.

Yeah, you know exactly.

It just happens.

Yes, Well, you.

Know there's this one song in yours that I mean, I think it's it's just makes me emotional every single time I hear it, and it's the and it's still all right.

I just love this song.

That was also a song for Richard.

In the process of making that record, Yeah, I didn't really have that, you know, I didn't have a title, didn't have anything.

And we actually went back to National Freedom his studio, and I went with Patrick Meuse who played drums, and Patrick was the only other person I played music with that I brought to the first session with Richard.

And then once Richard figured out that Pack could also do pro tools and played drums and other stuff, then he was just like, why don't you go do that bad you know, like Mace, go do this.

So yeah, he utilized it.

Like Richard's best approach to everything was was true laziness, honestly, you.

Know what I mean.

Like sometimes like that's good, that's good, but it was really like to just go back into National Freedom, you know, Richard burns so much Polisanto, like the place smells a certain way, it sounds a certain way, and like, you know, even when I listened to like a Damian Gerardo record or other people that Richard had produced and did in that study, like you can hear the sound of the room, you can hear you I hear what the floor sounds, you know what I mean?

Like it's very familiar.

Yeah, it's a character in its own it's still there, it is, yeah okay, and it's still being used.

I've popped in since a couple of times, and there's just like a there's a spirit in the place for sure, you know.

Yeah.

I don't know if it's Richard's, but it's like maybe just all the music that was made there still lives in that room.

So those kinds of places are really special.

Yeah.

Absolutely, yeah, So I might cry at this one.

I actually I wrote this one morning.

This is like a song I kind of started in a hotel room before Richard's memorial, And I feel like it is like the observation of yeah, like humanity, human experience is difficult, but it's always going to be okay, you know.

I think that's why it makes me cry.

It's so emotional and so relatable, you know, and simple it is, which is the best.

That's the best kind of song.

I love it.

It's like, as my interpretation of John Pryan's just a couple of chords.

It's all you all right, you're ready.

Ain't all right?

The hardness of my head, close your right, spinning around and.

Say hard times when you could find it.

Ain't the way that you want, but it's still all right.

Lead at night you lay around on accounting all the lights.

It means so funny now say times are hard.

You get this far, but ain't the witch you want.

I'll be damned it's old man.

Don't start to count this losses.

But it's still all right.

Seeing learn a lot out there, all the scorch and burn.

Gonna have to bury your friends.

Then you finally gets worse standing out it.

But you know why they get darned.

Stop praying for wings scroll, I'll baby, just let gold.

It ain't all right.

I'm spending out ahead, and it was cold outside when I hit the guard.

See I could sleep here and get on the field of me big time.

To grow.

The limit.

I don't know.

Now, hey, tonight to think about.

Remembering all the time you pointed osa glass is clear.

But all this fear starts even Mark idle him.

The bullet stands for your time in the dark.

But it's still al right, so pretty the no tears.

You made it through that I.

Made it through.

But that's a beautiful song.

Thank you.

That's just one of those songs.

Thank you.

You hear it once and it's just like whoa kind of sticks on you.

Yeah.

Yeah, I feel like songs sometimes you just like a they come out of nowhere and they feel like a blessing.

Those are definitely the best ones.

Yeah, it's my favorite kind of songwriting.

When it just happens, I know, I love it.

I love it.

When did you start writing songs?

Were you little bitty?

Yeah, I would have been a teenager.

Yeah.

I first started playing drums.

I got my first drum kid when I was seven.

Oh cool.

My mom and dad played music in church and like sort of a Christian, non denominational kind of thing that was like kind of kind of radical, you know in terms of like yeah, and my dad like in the seventies was prayed for and healed of cancer were kits and foma and pancreatitis.

Wow.

And so we kind of went from church to church and my dad would give his testimony and my mom and him also wrote religious songs together.

But also like you know, my mom was like a big James Taylor, Jim Crochey, Gordon Lightfoot.

Yeah, and that was kind of like what was in the house a lot.

My dad played harmonica and saying harmony and what did she play.

She played twelve STRINGO, you know, it's all string.

Guitar was always her instrument of choice.

Well that's a hard choice to me.

Yeah, but you know I remember like, yeah, when my uncle got her her first like Martin.

And it's crazy because my parents are so young, Like I remember my mom turning twenty nine.

That's crazy.

Yeah, it's crazy to be kids having kids, but so we you know, we spent a lot of time in church and singing.

So did they get your drum kits so you could complete the band?

I think I just wanted to play drum, and then when I was probably eleven or twelve, I got interested in guitar.

But then it really took me a while to like really find my way around it.

I think like my dad passed away when I was about thirteen, and that's when I kind of got into playing guitar.

Wow, And my mom taught me a couple of chords, and then immediately I just wouldn't like make up songs.

That's great, but.

I was also like like in my younger years, like they would make me sing harmony in church, and I was like so afraid of singing really yeah, just yeah, I was very not confident and very shy about it.

Yeah, just like a scared, little chubby kid.

You know.

I have an older sister who's two years older, and then I have a half brother that is twenty years younger than me.

So yeah, but yeah, so my sister was bossy and trying to tell me what to do, I know, but then I was also like a you know, I would hum and didn't know people could hear it.

So I was definitely put in special classes at one point because they thought I was a special needs kid, and I probably was.

But luckily it was before the era of medication, and I missed out on all that free speed you know.

Yeah, oh my god, sorry, which I could only imagine would have really messed me up.

But that's a whole yeah yeah, factory.

But yeah I don't.

Yeah, So like guitar, it was just that I never really wanted to be a songwriter.

I like loved Kendrick and Greg Allman and and yeah, I just kind of wrote like some songs would be like making fun of my sister, Yeah, just anything, you know, yeah, like someone it would be goofy.

And then it became like love songs pretty quick because I did not know how to like.

Yeah, it was pretty lonely and and never really knew if people liked me or not, so I would just be like, there's no way that's ever going to happen.

I just want to hug you, yeah, and then just be.

Like and then you'd write a song about it.

But isn't that kind of what all songs?

Yeah?

And it started that way, and I'm kind of still the same really, Yeah, I just like more intense, so.

Yeah, yeah, wow, that's really Is this all okay?

Is it all seemed like too?

Because I'm not really depressed.

I just hope it doesn't seem like too much of a downer, you know.

It's really I think it's really special when people share.

I think what you're sharing is really pretty deep and I'm not depressed by hearing it at all.

And I thank you for sharing it all because I think, you know, if you feel comfortable sharing, that's the real stuff.

That's what people can relate to, is the real thing, And I think it's very helpful.

It's helpful for me right now.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, it's beautiful.

We still got two more.

Yeah, do you want to?

I want to do mayvis in South here?

Yeah, I love those.

Here.

Yeah, I love this song.

So you know, we both are friends with Mavis.

I think the last time I saw you it.

Was with mAb's birthday birthday.

Since saying I haven't even like Mavis and I have like our friendship has grown, you know, and it's been like years of like every time I see her, uh, you know, and she calls me montana, which I've learned means motherfucker.

Did you know that he did not?

Yeah, the spencer Spencer tweety told me that he was just like, oh, that means motherfucker.

He's like they weren't, you know, like Staples weren't allowed to curse.

So she's kind of like, man, you're a motherfucker.

Is like her being like, oh, mom.

Dona, that's so cute, you know.

And and I just I like I cherish every moment that I get with her, and and I just I honestly just like I feel like that makes me incredible.

I know she's the best.

Like I feel like people should have so much reverence for her, you know.

Yeah, And I just like anytime around her, like her to be uplifted, to like the beauty, and like I just want people to see that because the amount of influences she's had, and like I know, HBO did a documentary on her, but it like it just it doesn't tell the story that you get from Mavis when she's telling you stories, you know, And I was like, wow, I wish there was like I could hear more of that and and the beauty in that, and like just how much her and her family has had an impact on modern music.

You know, Sorry, I can.

I don't have Yeah, that's amazing.

You you know, I thought it was gross.

My dad always had one, but it's really convenient.

Yeah, it was great.

Sorry, I got all Yeah, but all right, you know.

The words, you know, the words being with you.

You know the nights.

Another nights that they got seen you go on away, go on the way I do not own.

You, and you've been last knowing the way I do.

I do for you, No la scene.

I do for you, oh man.

Any other times said your feet would move so fast you couldn't.

See gone all the days.

When you could started hit and no run me down on the lights, down on the lights, said even up.

I recalled the time.

You and my.

No time your bad.

Your teeth was always just a smile.

To me, it was I.

I couldn't remember how it ended the right way, So that's him.

That was great.

Yeah, because there's all.

The time recall it time.

Oh yeah, it goes up.

I recall the time.

You were man all the time you'll be.

Oh though, it's just a smile to me.

That works.

We also, you know, it's I feel like that song like just I think I call it maybe's because it kind of like made me feel like going to church, you know, with all the the vocals.

And when I first toured that record, it was like a solo record with a ten piece band.

Oh my god, but we didn't.

It was a bum when we only got to do that record because it came out on February fourteenth to twenty twenty.

We played ten shows and then we actually got to New York and we're already starting to get like, you know, messages from people on social media like I can't believe you guys, like I can't come, Like it doesn't feel safe.

And nobody knew it.

Yeah.

Yeah, it was just such you know, like you pour your heart into something and it means so much, and I know this happens all the time, and it happened to a lot of people who put out record at the same time.

But luckily, I feel like those records became the soundtrack to their pandemic, you know.

Especially that record, it had such an intimate feel.

You know, I look forward to making another record like that.

Yeah, And I don't know if that's what.

I'll do next or you know, follow the follow whatever past that you get pulled on.

I think it as it comes, I do, you know, I feel like for my you know, I've been really fortunate in my career and then I always just kind of like did what felt best, you know, And there's been a couple of detours where I feel like I I just didn't know any better.

That reassures that, like you should have just stuck to your gut.

That like, your initial feeling is generally the one to go.

It, like, your initial gut instinct is like, if you feel that, don't question that.

And I like want younger artists to know that, ye just be like if you feel something like, don't be misled by what someone's trying to tell you how your career could go, because there's no guarantee of any of that.

It's true, you don't want to do.

Anything you regret exactly.

You don't like even if it's just a bad song, especially it's a bad song.

But I certainly throughout my career, like earlier, for sure, like songs that like, you know, management label would be like, oh, this song could be a radio I was like, I don't want to push that, and I probably shot myself from the foot.

Yeah, you know, but I think it would have been like or not pantering to a trend at the time, And yeah, I might have elevated my career too, But I feel like it's still just been like a slow incline.

Yeah, I haven't got to the decline, you know.

I don't feel like I haven't plateaued yet, which is kind of amazing.

It's been ten years of the Night Sweats.

This August will be ten years.

You just played the Garden.

We just played the Garden and it was like, you know, it was oh, I mean it was my mom's first time in New York.

It was I mean, it's garden.

It's like the most famous arena in the world.

You know, like that's pretty fun.

Yeah, it was cool, you know, and we'd just done Fallon and honestly, Jimmy like helped launch our career and in such a way I don't think anybody knew was gonna happen.

I certainly was like sitting in meetings after that where people are like, well TV doesn't sell records, but but your that performance did.

And I think, you know, like he had a song, and you know, I feel like we'd tried to do Late Night earlier on in my career, and other than Jules Holland hadn't had like any any no break nothing in the States.

And so Jimmy had a song because he just loved the song sob and and that was really like in the process of Richard, that was like a throwaway and Richard like it was the last song we did when we when we were working together for the first record.

He was like, Okay, so label loves the song.

It was like, huh, management loves song.

I was like, yeah, he's like when you play it for people who they freak out.

I was like yeah, He's like, okay, well we should probably do it.

It's just funny what what like people latch onto, you know.

And then I struggled with for a long time, is like, is my legacy going to be this song?

You know?

You know, but at some point it doesn't really matter, because it's like giving me the ability to do everything else that I want to do, and I'm still able to create music and write from a place of honesty.

All right, do you want to take us out on a song?

Let's yeah, so this is south of Here from your newer record.

Yep, I like this one?

Okay, right on?

Well, dude in the corners we're having.

As a wand up the road.

See him lost but not a band, and.

Well it's hard for one to know.

You just find the wind and flow the bucking' ta.

Is no.

And now I would have to do.

Let it out here they let us be and now whatever the just go.

I may even go back home.

Remember who I was in the corner and I happen in.

Things about no other ways.

We didn't all and one left standing.

When everyone else saw for your game and hate the word you know under the graves were hiding you don't on do I hate and the bad?

And I would have to go.

There something here that let us be.

Now I won't have to just move.

I made me go back home a male.

Who I would.

I wake in the little man?

Where my band, where my bed, where my bed where my bed.

Maybe something here didn't let us be.

That was fun.

I loved it.

Yeah, thank you so much for doing this.

It's been so fun.

We never really get to play together, I know, I like on a birthday.

I'm I know.

Yeah, it was really specially playing with you and singing with you in this way.

So it's really nice.

Thanks for doing it.

Oh my pleasure.

Thank you.

Great to see you again soon.

Now we did it.

Now we do it.

We can just be friends now.

Yeah that's yeah, Thanks for listening.

This episode was super fun for us, and I wanted to tell you about the songs we played this time.

We started with a cover and the first song we did was the Great Link Ray song from his self titled album, which was released in nineteen seventy one.

The song is called Fallen Rain, one of my faves.

The second song we played was get Used to the Night by Nathaniel Ratelift in the Night Sweats from his album South of Here, which was released in twenty twenty four.

Third song we did was and It's Still Alright, such a classic.

I love this song Nathaniel Rateliff from the album and It's Still Alright twenty twenty.

That was released.

The fourth song we played was called Mavis, also from that same album, and It's Still Alright released in twenty twenty.

Fifth song we played Wow, We did a lot of songs called South of Here by Nathaniel Ratelife and the Night Sweats album South of Here released twenty twenty four.

Special thanks to Nathaniel Rateliff for joining us today, and We'll be back next week with Bridget Everett.

Norah Jones Is Playing Along is a production of iHeart Podcasts.

I'm your host Nora Jones.

Visit Nora Jones channel and be sure to subscribe while you're there.

This episode was recorded by Matt Marinelli, mixed by Jamie Landry.

Audio post production and mastering by Greg Tobler.

Artwork by Eliza Frye.

Photography by Shervin Linez.

Produced by Nora Jones and Sarah Oda.

Executive producers Aaron Wan Kaufman and Jordan Rendog.

Marketing Lead Queen Annaiki Toodles

H