Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats

Take your pick of any number of articles about Nathaniel Rateliff over the past few months, and they’ll all tell you some version of how he’s hit his stride in the retro music renaissance, and how he hasn’t stopped going up, up, up since he and his band The Night Sweats made their The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon debut this month last year. Both of those things are true – Rateliff’s music is foot-stomping and soulful, and his is a classic “toiling musician makes it overnight” story. But what doesn’t necessarily come across in these pieces is why he is suddenly America’s sweetheart.

It’s not just the popular “retro look” that draws the crowds – though the denim, plaid, leather boot and fedora-clad ensemble certainly has that – people are connecting to Rateliff and his crew because they sound like…America. Like home. Musically, it’s country mixed with James Brown; it’s bluegrass with The Rolling Stones and Elvis’s “Suspicious Minds.” Lyrically, it’s the expression of genuine experiences wrapped up in classic themes that makes the songs so appealing.