Nick 13 is best known as the singer, songwriter and guitarist for the band Tiger Army. For several years, the frontman has planned to do an album based in the country music styles he first explored in the Tiger Army songs "Outlaw Heart" (1999), "In The Orchard" (2001), "The Long Road" (2004) and "Where The Moss Slowly Grows" (2007). In 2008 during a tour stop in Nashville, 13 decided that he would make his longtime dream of recording an album and playing live with a roots-based solo project a reality. "Tiger Army isn't going away. But while roots music has always been an element of Tiger Army's sound, a whole album in the style of 'Outlaw Heart' or 'In the Orchard' would be a different thing, so I'm just going to call it Nick 13." The vintage American sounds of 1930s-1960s hillbilly, honky-tonk and bluegrass have been a longtime love of 13's, an extension of his exploration of American rockabilly music as a youth. "When I wrote 'Outlaw Heart' for the first Tiger Army album, I figured people would hate it as a lot of our audience came from the world of punk rock. I released it anyway because it was a song I loved and it meant a lot to me. People were more open-minded than I thought, and it became not only one of my favorites, but one of the favorites of our fans. It was conceived as one song, but it was just the beginning." Much of 2009 was spent writing & gathering inspiration for the new project, including a return to Nashville. Nick 13 made his live debut as a solo country artist in 2009 as part of Tiger Army’s 2nd annual “Octoberflame” festival, playing two songs a night, including the brand new tracks “When They Carry My Body Down,” “Gambler’s Life” (co-written with Alain Whyte) and a honky-tonk version of the Tiger Army classic “Cupid’s Victim.” The songs were played as a guest appearance during Tiger Army’s set, which necessitated a changeover to a five-piece lineup with different players from Tiger Army’s longtime three-piece setup. "I've been asked about doing a recording or project that was entirely country-based since the first album was released. It was an intriguing idea to me that I kept coming back to over the years, but I was always too busy with Tiger Army,” 13 says. But while emphasizing that Tiger Army has NOT broken up, 13 notes that the country solo project has taken precedence for 2010 -- “This is where my passion lies right now, I’m excited to see where the future leads.”
http://schedule.sxsw.com/events/event_MS13340
