“Just being in motion and seeing the scenery is stirring… it quickens certain emotions and brings things to light that maybe you weren’t thinking about in your day to day. It’s like hearing your own heartbeat.”
For Portland songwriter J. Nicolás, the open road isn’t the fast-paced, monotonous tapestry seen so often in the road-weary artist. Instead, it is a quiet place, a deliberate place, one that offers Nicolás the space to understand himself and his world around him with clarity.His upcoming album Wild Oak, which he wrote largely while behind the steering wheel, feels like late night driving: an effortless Folk-Americana soundtrack for the final hours of a day. Laden with rich harmonies and a band that carries along the intuitive lyrics with ease, the record holds a sense of peace even while navigating the memory of heartbreak, echoing Nicolás’ own healing process.
“There’s a lot of healing in movement. Not running away from, but moving through the world, seeing other places and things and getting a better perspective on yourself.”
Indeed, Nicolás doesn’t use the road solely as backdrop for his emotional reflection, but instead weaves memory with topography until they become a part of one another, and exhales them in the same breath. Wild Oak serves as a faithful portrait of this process.
Today Glide is excited to premiere the wistful Americana ballad, “Montana Luv,” ahead of its official release on July 30th. Laced with the lonesome sound of a harmonica and quietly hopeful acoustic guitar, the song finds Nicolás singing of a journey home from Flathead County, Montana, and of the little moments of solo traveling that become tender in the presence of memory. With plenty of twangy pedal steel courtesy of Steely Pete, a steady beat, and warm harmonies from fellow Portland artist Ezza Rose, the lyrics explore the nature of leaving people and places behind. Nicolás and his accompanying musicians keep the instrumentation simple and straightforward, allowing the softly gritty vocals and timeless lyrics to shine in this tune that is equal parts folk and Americana.
J. Nicolás describes the inspiration and process behind the song:
Although the song is entitled “Montana Luv” and is about traveling through Montana and Idaho,
fundamentally, the song is about transitions. Sometimes the biggest impediment to a transition is simply
getting going, and I tried to capture this idea with the line, “the toughest part of leaving is the start.”
This has applied both to my own sobriety and also with leaving relationships that weren’t healthy, and I
wove this idea about transitions into a reflection about traveling through these incredibly stunning
places that inspire me creatively.
I wrote Montana Luv very quickly in December 2020 after a trip to Whitefish, Montana. At the time, I
had spent several months recording a completely different album, but the older songs weren’t feeling
right, so I decided to change course and instead record an entirely different collection of songs that
were inspired by driving and relationships and a general transition in my own life.
I recorded the album on analog tape, and I wanted it to be a quick, live recording with few overdubs.
The entire project was about sincerity and honesty and rawness, and just letting the process be what it
was organically without micro-managing the recording or trying to make everything perfect. I wanted an
honest, sincere, simple record that sounded like some of the analog records from the early 1970s that I
really fancy.
LISTEN:
Photo credit: Grave Pulver
