Jeb Loy Nichols

Jeb Loy Nichols, born in the United States, now resides as an expatriate in Wales, where he works as a singer, songwriter, musician, visual artist, and novelist. His dusky tenor, immediately identifiable, leads him across shifting sonic landscapes as he crafts and cuts original material that merges blue-eyed soul, Americana, reggae, and blues. From 1990 to 1994 he fronted the country-reggae group the Fellow Travellers, whose four albums first presented this blended approach to listeners.

As a solo performer his initial Capitol single, “As the Rain,” received a remix in 1997 from longtime associate Adrian Sherwood of On-U Sound and became a dance-club success, lifting the debut album Lovers Knot onto playlists at college and independent stations. Because Nichols also maintains a career as a visual artist and designer, his recording schedule remains intermittent. He placed two albums with Rykodisc early in the new century, among them 2002’s Easy Now, and delivered two more for Germany’s Tuition imprint, notably 2007’s Days Are Mighty. Three years afterward he joined British power-pop songwriter Ian Gomm for the joint release Only Time Will Tell. Country Hustle arrived in 2017 with members of Nostalgia 77 among its studio personnel, and two years later he issued June Is Short July Is Long alongside the Westwood All-Stars, a circle of Welsh musicians from his area. In 2021, supported by Cold Diamond & Mink, he recorded the gritty R&B set Jeb Loy for Timmion Records, then followed it in 2022 with the Sherwood-produced United States of the Broken Hearted.

Nichols entered the world in Lander, Wyoming, and at age seven relocated with his family to Warrensburg, Missouri. Childhood journeys to bluegrass festivals surrounded him with that music and with country, yet a transistor radio opened the door to soul, his most enduring influence. Shortly before high school the household moved once more, this time to Texas, where the arrival of punk rock captured his attention. After graduation he traveled alone to New York City and became a regular presence on the club circuit, forming friendships with the Slits and Neneh Cherry while designing posters and sleeves by day and making music at night. Two years later, at Ari Up’s urging, he shifted to London and shared a house with Up, Cherry, and producer Adrian Sherwood. Following their advice he assembled the hybrid reggae outfit Jeb Loy & the Oil Wells, which contributed the track “Things That Make U.S.” to On-U Sound’s inaugural compilation Wild Paarty Sounds, Vol. 1.

In 1990 Nichols founded the Fellow Travellers with Dave Schramm (who soon left) and vocalist Loraine Morley, his future wife; their first album, No Easy Way, appeared on the Ohio indie Okra. The spicy mixture of country, folk, and reggae offered the earliest clear sign of his ability to feel equally at home on rural roads and urban pavement. The Fellow Travellers issued their second album, Just a Visitor, in 1992 and Things and Time the following year, both on Okra and both echoing Johnny Cash as often as George Gershwin or Horace Andy.

Nichols’s solo debut surfaced on Capitol in 1997. The ambitious, densely layered Lover’s Knot showcased his nasal drawl and banjo picking amid soul, blues, and reggae currents, placing it slightly ahead of prevailing tastes; Capitol agreed, dropping him and withdrawing the record after only limited North American distribution. He reemerged in 2001 with Just What Time It Is, issued in the United States by Ryko and in Britain by Rough Trade. Cut in Jamaica with engineer Stephen Stanley, whose credits include Buju Banton and Burning Spear, the album again fused country & western with soul and reggae while adding a trace of programming that lent a hyperreal sheen reminiscent of a night-vision view of a front porch. Critical acclaim followed, and Nichols continued with Easy Now in 2002. His fourth album, Now Then, contained some of his most meticulously shaped, candid, and affecting work, a standard he maintained on 2007’s Days Are Mighty, 2008’s Parish Bar, and 2009’s Strange Faith & Practice. Only Time Will Tell, prepared for 2010 release, paired him once more with Brinsley Schwarz guitarist Ian Gomm.

In subsequent years Nichols wrote liner notes for Bear Family’s 2011 Jim Ford demo collection Demolition Expert, mounted an exhibition of his artwork at Austin’s Yard Dog gallery, and delivered the thirteen-track album The Jeb Loy Nichols Special on Decca in summer 2012. Produced by Ben Lamdin of Nostalgia 77, the set interspersed originals with covers of country, Americana, and R&B material such as Merle Haggard’s “Going Where the Lonely Go,” Townes Van Zandt’s “Waiting Around to Die,” and George Jackson’s “Ain’t It Funny.” Positive notices ensued, followed by a successful tour after which Nichols devoted several years to his visual art.

Earlier, in 2010, he had tracked Longtime Traveller, an extremely limited edition issued solely in Japan by On-U Sound and therefore absent from most discographies. Co-produced by longtime friends Adrian Sherwood and Style Scott—associations reaching back to the early 1980s—the record framed Nichols’s Americana and country songs in dread, dubwise, and reggae settings, with members of the Dub Syndicate and Roots Radics supplying accompaniment and Sherwood at the console. On-U Sound reissued the album worldwide in winter 2016, completely remixed and remastered and expanded by a second disc containing five bonus tracks and several alternate mixes.

In 2013 keyboardist and co-writer Andrew Hale of Sade invited Nichols to London for songwriting and recording sessions. Living on a small Welsh farm, Nichols could travel only sporadically, so the pair worked whenever possible over more than three years, sometimes alone and sometimes with additional musicians, including three days alongside Ben Lamdin of Nostalgia 77. A PledgeMusic campaign financed the project. Titled Country Hustle and released in spring 2017, the album incorporated covers of songs by Razzy Bailey and Luther Vandross together with originals that braided Southern funk, Northern soul, and dubwise rhythms into Nichols’s characteristic country framework.

Two years later he gathered local Welsh players, collectively named the Westwood All-Stars, to lay down live studio demos steeped in soul, his earliest musical passion. Finding the performances already satisfactory, he added only horn overdubs; Compass Records issued the results as June Is Short, July Is Long in the fall. Nichols published the novel Suzanne and Gertrude in March 2020 and then remained in Wales throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, continuing to compose songs and paint. During a brief easing of restrictions he joined the rhythm section of garage R&B stalwarts Cold Diamond & Mink, an organist, a horn section, and backing vocalist Wanda Felicia to record the gritty yet relaxed R&B collection Jeb Loy. Timmion issued advance singles “I Just Can’t Stop” and “Can’t Cheat the Dance” in May 2021, followed by the full album in June. In November 2022 Nichols returned with the Sherwood-produced United States of the Broken Hearted.