"Memphis Ice shows Nicole Atkins to be a superlative talent
just waiting for the world to acknowledge her gifts."
– Holler (8.5/10)
Internationally acclaimed chanteuse Nicole Atkins will celebrate this week’s arrival of her eagerly anticipated new album with an intimate one-night-only livestream Moment. Presented by premium digital live platform Moment House, MEMPHIS ICE: A LIVESTREAM MOMENT will air worldwide this Friday, December 10 at 9pm (EST). Replays will be available for only 24 hours following the event. Tickets are available now exclusively via Moment House HERE.
MOMENT HOUSE PRESENTS
NICOLE ATKINS
NORTH + SOUTH AMERICA: FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10 @ 9PM (EST)
ASIA + AUSTRALIA + NEW ZEALAND:
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11 @ 4AM (EST)
EUROPE + UK + AFRICA:
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11 @ 1PM (EST)
# # #
This week’s livestream Moment heralds the release of Atkins’ milestone new album and full-length performance film, MEMPHIS ICE, arriving via Single Lock Records on limited-edition vinyl and at all DSPs and streaming services on Friday, December 10; pre-orders are available now. A reimagined companion project to last year’s acclaimed ITALIAN ICE, the live recording includes such recently released tracks as “Promised Land” and “Mind Eraser,” both of which are joined by official music videos taken from the performance film and streaming now via YouTube.
Hailed by UNCUT as “clear-eyed, warm, and stylish,” ITALIAN ICE was among the best albums of 2020, its warmth, vivid color, and a tilt-a-whirl variety of musical grooves providing much-needed positivity in what proved a very difficult year. Unable to tour behind the album’s release, Atkins began hosting a variety show from her attic. “Live From The Steel Porch with Nicole Atkins” soon received support from Amazon Music, with new episodes shot at Asbury Park, NJ’s famed Paramount Theater with such special guests as Kurt Vile and the Dean Ween Group.
The back-to-basics performances inspired Atkins to explore new and previously untapped flavors in her vocals and songcraft. Backed by an ace trio of Dan Chen (piano), Laura Epling (violin), and Maggie Chaffee (cello), Atkins recorded MEMPHIS ICE live in one day at Memphis Magnetic studio, simultaneously filming the performance with painterly shadow and light. The stripped-down, smoky style of both brings all-new emotional vistas to fan-favorite songs like “Domino,” “Captain,” and “Forever,” while opening the door even wider to where Atkins would like to go next as a singer.
“I always thought about my Judy Garland or Liza Minnelli moment coming later in life,” she says. “But after we finished that day of recording, I had so much fun just singing and was so in the moment, I thought, ‘I want to do that sooner, I want to do that for my next record.’ I want to make a record of standards that are new if that’s possible. Songs that make you feel like you’re singing ‘Stardust,’ but you’re not. I kept thinking that on my first record, NEPTUNE CITY, the songs felt old, but they were new. Why can’t there be new songs that feel like the old standards?”
Indeed, that committed spirit of timeless songcraft has already earned MEMPHIS ICE praise from avowed Atkins fan Elvis Costello.
“Songs don’t stop living when the red light goes out,” says Costello.” “Pulling the colors and curtains from the studio versions of these songs, you find yourself within melodies and their emotions. Borne up by some beautiful playing from the small ensemble, this is some serious singing.”
Atkins – who recently lit up North American stages supporting both Spoon and The Hives – will showcase her songs with a wide-ranging 2022 live schedule. For complete information and ticket availability, please visit www.nicoleatkins.com/tour.
NICOLE ATKINS
ON TOUR 2022
JANUARY 2022
27-31 – Riviera Maya, MEX – Hard Rock Hotel & Unico **
MARCH 2022
18-25 – Miami, FL – Cayamo, A Journey Through Song
** The Avett Brothers At The Beach 2022
# # #
PRAISE FOR ITALIAN ICE:
“One of 2020’s finest albums…ITALIAN ICE clocks in at a conservative 45 minutes, but each of the eleven tunes is packed with such meticulously layered production that it seems longer. You’ll want to experience it with headphones and turn up the volume on larger speakers to enhance the sonic intricacies. As with all discs this densely produced, it beckons you to return and hear what you might have missed before.”
– AMERICAN SONGWRITER
“Atkins’ fifth is an instantly winning exemplar of its kind, featuring 10 confident yet unflashy originals and one cover… Recorded for the most part at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in just five days,
it radiates a congenial glow from start to finish.”
– UNCUT
“While Atkins has been a model of consistency over her career, and ITALIAN ICE continues to deliver on her established high standards, it also represents her most diverse and out-of-the-box album yet… As the next chapter in an unimpeachably reliable catalog, Nicole Atkins couldn’t ask for anything more from Italian Ice, preserving her artistic hallmarks, deepening her emotional lyrical depth, while broadening her stylistic palette. While the genre-hopping may prove tantalizingly fleeting, it just as much serves as the perfect
appetite-whetting for Atkins’s next time out.”
– THE LINE OF BEST FIT
“Stellar, old-school pop music, funneling its disparate ingredients into catchy songs loaded with dramatic twists and turns. Whether evoking the heartache of Roy Orbison, the passion of Dusty Springfield, or the self-aware theatrics of David Bowie, Atkins seems to be enjoying herself immensely,
as if delighted by the primal pleasure of putting on a show.”
– NO DEPRESSION
# # #
NICOLE ATKINS
MEMPHIS ICE
Single Lock Records
(Release Date: Friday, December 10)
