Nickel&Rose’s new EP digs up Americana’s real roots

An aura of romance surrounds the Milwaukee Americana-folk duo Nickel&Rose. Maybe that’s because they cut their musical teeth during a picturesque jaunt through Europe.

Before Nickel&Rose was formed, Carl Nichols played guitar in De La Buena and backup guitar for Lex Allen. He and Johanna Rose met while she was performing in the Milwaukee experimental band New Boyz Club.

Eventually they combined their talent and their names and formed Nickel&Rose.

Nichols had spent years visiting the countries that he envisioned to be “the place to be an artist.” So shortly after recording their debut demo, they went overseas, traveling on very little money. During their journey, they established relationships in the most unlikely of places.

They also wrote and recorded an EP.

That’s not really surprising. They’d gone abroad looking for inspiration.

“We just wanted the freedom of no one knowing who we were and having the freedom to do and play whatever,” says vocalist and upright-bassist Rose.

Maybe it’s the circumstances under which it was conceived and born — in a small apartment in Berlin that came furnished with a piano — that makes the 2016 EP Oh Sweet Love feel like a page torn from a novel. 

While in Europe, they were contacted by German musician Nick Schroeder, who had become acquainted with the duo’s music online. He recorded, mixed and mastered the EP in Berlin — and recorded harmonica on a track.

The EP was released April 20, 2017. 

During that first European tour, Nickel&Rose performed in front of 50,000 protestors in Romania — the largest protests the country had seen since the fall of communism in 1989.

“We had a show that night, and we were invited to perform by some organizers from the protests,” Rose says. “When the protests started picking up, people weren’t coming out to shows because everyone was protesting. It was amazing, I don’t know why we can’t have that happen in America.”

For the Romanian show, Nickel&Rose incorporated the protest song “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Us Around” into their set. The audience clapped and sang along.

“It was foggy, I looked out and all I could see was people,” Nichols says. “It was the most people I’ve ever seen from the stage.”

Back home to Americana

After Nickel&Rose returned to the United States, the duo promptly began working on their upcoming EP Americana, which is set to release Sept. 14. The EP was recorded at two Milwaukee studios — Silver City Studios with Josh Evert and with Lawton Hall at The Chair Company.

Americana, as the title implies, is the duo’s attempt at creating authentic, traditional Americana-folk music. It’s a bit of a departure from Oh Sweet Love’s experimental approach to folk music. 

“Most of the songs are about losing something and maybe overcoming it — or, at least giving the listener something they can relate to so that they can maybe not feel so alone,” Rose says. 

The authenticity of Americana music goes all the way back to the roots of the genre — roots that the duo is hoping they can unearth in order to educate listeners. Nichols and Rose aren’t as concerned about what Americana music sounds like as they are concerned about recognizing where it came from.

“There are a handful of pioneers of what I consider Americana: Jimmy Rogers, Lead Belly and Chuck Berry,” Nichols says. “They made the foundation of R&B and rock and roll, but it wasn’t because they were creating these borders of genres. They were taking the roots of American music and finding different ways to combine them.”

A ‘white person’s music scene’

“I started going to bluegrass shows as a teenager, and I quickly realized that this was kind of a white person’s music scene,” Nichols says. “Most of the artists are white, and most of the fans are white, and I’ve just never been able to escape that — knowing that the history of the music is more diverse than that.”

Nichols and Rose have experienced their share of discrimination at large-scale bluegrass shows, where Nichols has often found himself being one of the only persons of color. 

“People assume that we’re there to sell drugs,” Nichols says. “The first couple of times it happened I was like, ‘That was weird,’ but then it happened almost every time.”

The first single released off Americana — also titled “Americana” — is a culmination of Nichols’ experiences as a black folk artist.

“If I wasn’t standing on this stage, would you wonder why I was here? Well I thought this was for everyone, not just a few,” Nichols’ gentle, melancholic voice sings on the track. “I guess that’s why it’s called Americana.”

A jab at Elvis Presley’s appropriation of the blues — “stolen by a man with blue-suede shoes” — further drives home Nichols’ point. 

“So many different things need to be addressed,” Nichols says. “White people need to understand where this music comes from, and black people need to be reintroduced to their culture.” 

Nickel&Rose plan on releasing one more single from the EP before it is released in its entirety. “Dog River,” the opening track, is one that Nichols promises will be “spooky, ghost-y and African-y.” 

Nickel&Rose will celebrate the release of Americana with a show at Company Brewing Sept. 1. Fans will have a chance to purchase physical copies of the EP on CD before the official release Sept. 14. 

On the road again

After the release, Nickel&Rose will get back to performing outside of Milwaukee. The duo plans on touring in Southern states before heading to Spain and elsewhere in Europe.

“We like bringing the music to the people, so touring is always our main goal,” Nichols says. 

Rose adds that her hope for the duo is to get picked up as an opening act on a national tour.

“Otherwise, we’ll just keep dragging an upright bass around Europe,” she says, laughing. 

But dragging an upright bass around Europe is where it all started to come together for the duo.

“We’ll lose all of our money, but it’ll be an adventure,” Nichols says of the band’s philosophy on touring. It’s the kind of attitude that placed the Milwaukee band in front of the eyes of 50,000 protestors in Romania, just one of the many unforgettable experiences of an Americana duo with a big voice. 

Nickel&Rose perform at Company Brewing Sept. 1 with King Courteen and The Grasping at Straws. The show begins at 9:15 p.m. and admission is $10. Visit companybrewing.com for more information.