Since his folky cover of ELO’s “Do Ya,” produced by Mike ‘Slo-Mo’ Brenner, which earned the praise of its legendary composer, Jeff Lynne, and was included on the Showtime hit “Californication” — the multi-faceted artist Neil Nathan (neilnathan.com) has made an art form of joyfully genre bending record making, jumping seamlessly between glam rock, garage, americana, power pop, alt country, and folk, while recording in Philadelphia, Detroit, Atlanta, Texas, and Brooklyn.
But for the past three years, Neil’s been primarily holed up at Studio1935 in South Philadelphia, collaborating with Producer Mike ‘Slo-Mo’ Brenner and Engineer/Co-producer Pete Rydberg, on a barrage of covers and originals, Singles, EP’s, and LP’s, set to be released through 2022. Backed by The Slo-Motions, featuring musicians from Philadelphia’s John Train, The Donuts, No Good Sister, and Beretta 76, their rocking cover of Chuck Berry’s Promised Land is the first song to see the light of day.
Says Nathan, “Taking a swipe at a classic Chuck Berry tune which has been covered by luminaries such as The Grateful Dead, Elvis Presley, and James Taylor, is a bit nuts, but it’s such a joy to sing that road trip, that American journey, having a dream and overcoming every obstacle in your path to get there. Works on me every time. Mike and Pete, along with drummer Mark Schreiber, and James Taylor bass player, Chico Huff, got a great groove going. And I added a kind of Wings meets Brendan Benson inspired chorus, which sounds pretty smooth with the No Good Sisters on back ups. Richard Hunter adds some lovely harmonica flourishes too.”
Neil Nathan and The Slo-Motions will be playing a short set featuring the song at Fergies on Friday, February 21 in between John Train sets. They’ll also be previewing songs from their forthcoming EP, Love Songs for Leah.