Artist of the Week: Shane Nicholson

CountryTown in partnership with iHeartCountry Australia is proud to announce Shane Nicholson as our Artist Of The Week, following the release of his new album, Living In Colour.

Nicholson’s storied career started in the late 1990s with his first Brisbane-based band Pretty Violent Stain. They released an EP in 1997 called Blush, but split in 2000. He launched his solo career in 2002 with the release of his debut studio album, It’s A Movie.

To date, the Australian singer-songwriter and producer has recorded 11 studio albums. He has received three ARIA awards – for his solo album Hell Breaks Loose in 2015 and for his hit collaborations with Kasey Chambers – Rattlin’ Bones (2008) and Wreck & Ruin (2012). He has also won 11 CMAA Golden Guitar awards, including the 2021 ‘Song of the Year’ for The High Price of Surviving, as well as two APRA awards.

His latest album, Living In Colour is Nicholson in different hues: trusting and cynical, father and friend, sometimes buoyant and in love, beginning to have faith in the world, other times struggling to make sense of the same world that can rip your heart right out.

Nicholson is a man remaking himself constantly. He says, “That’s exactly me to a T. I guess in some ways that’s good: I have more positive days than I used to, and that probably spills over into songs now and then. It’s been a pretty sad couple of years to be frank, losing one of my best mates to suicide, grandparents, my partner lost her dad, my manager lost his brother, a few close industry friends. And then in the first COVID lockdown there was this crazy spate of musician suicides in Australia, people that we’d all known.”

Living In Colour was written and recorded in Nicholson’s Central Coast studio pretty much on his own due to COVID restrictions, while also producing 4-5 other artists projects at the same time. The album also features the tracks Harvest On Vinyl, The High Price Of Surviving, Life Ain't Fine and his latest single, And You Will Have Your Way - which currently sits at #17 on the Countrytown Music Network Hot 50 Country Airplay Chart.

He will celebrate the release of the new album tonight on Facebook Live from 7pm AEST.

Keep up to date with Shane Nicholson on his Facebook page here.

For more Artist Of The Week features, including Shane Nicholson, check out here.

Image: Supplied