Michael Nau

Michael Nau sings, writes songs, and plays a range of instruments, delivering indie rock that feels dreamy and introspective while drawing on country, folk, psychedelia, and classic pop. He led Page France and Cotton Jones, two kindred projects active from the mid-2000s into the early 2010s, then began issuing music under his own name in 2016. Although earlier solo efforts included backing musicians in varying configurations, the 2018 release Michael Nau & the Mighty Thread gave his drifting, weekend-oriented songs a more assertive full-band treatment. The 2019 solo album Less Ready to Go folded in classic soul and reggae touches to deepen his stylized retro palette, and the 2023 album Accompany, richer in twang, integrated steel guitars, strings, and additional layers into its spacious, echo-laden arrangements.

Born in Maryland, Nau started his first band in Baltimore during 2004. The lineup, known as Page France, featured Nau on vocals, guitar, and keyboards alongside Whitney McGraw on keyboards, glockenspiel, and vocals, Jasen Reeder on bass, and Clinton Jones on drums. They issued three albums of reflective, melodic indie rock reminiscent of Death Cab for Cutie and the Decemberists, opening with the 2005 set Come, I'm a Lion. The group moved to Suicide Squeeze for Hello, Dear Wind in 2006 and Page France and the Family Telephone in 2007 before Nau and McGraw launched Cotton Jones Basket Ride. That venture explored a psych-folk blend that later became closely tied to Nau; it put out a self-titled EP, then shortened the name to Cotton Jones. The River Strumming, the project’s first full-length, appeared on St. Ives in 2008, after which the duo returned to Suicide Squeeze for Paranoid Cocoon in 2009 and Tall Hours in the Glowstream in 2010. A final EP, Sit Beside Your Vegetables, surfaced in 2011.

Nau next recorded as a solo artist, although his debut still included McGraw—by then his wife—among numerous guests. Assembled from several years of unfinished material, Mowing came out on Suicide Squeeze in early 2016. Full Time Hobby handled its European edition later that year, and the second solo album, Some Twist, followed in June 2017 on both Full Time Hobby and Suicide Squeeze. Three months afterward he released the Load EP, a set of tracks he felt did not fit on Some Twist. In 2018 he issued Michael Nau & the Mighty Thread, which retained his dreamy, reverb-washed indie pop and rock yet emphasized a fuller ensemble sound. Recorded in a Burlington, Vermont apartment, the album enlisted more than half a dozen players, among them guitarist Benny Yurco, keyboardist Will Brown, and drummer Graeme Gibson. The standalone 7-inch “No Quit” appeared on Karma Chief Records in March 2019, after which a revised supporting cast joined him for the full-length Less Ready to Go later that year; issued solely under Nau’s name, it received a cassette edition via Press On Records. He self-released the stripped-down April 2020 album So On So On, an acoustic-guitar-based solo recording captured in his attic.

Producer and engineer Adrian Olsen, known for work with the Head and the Heart, Fruit Bats, and Lucy Dacus, prompted the next album by inviting Nau to his Richmond, Virginia studio. With sessions scheduled, Nau composed new material and assembled a band that included studio regulars McGraw, Brown, and multi-instrumentalist Seth Kauffman plus touring acquaintances Mat Davidson (of Twain, Langhorne Slim, and Big Thief) and Ken Woodward (of Twain and Buck Meek), both multi-instrumentalists. The resulting album, Accompany, was captured essentially live as a band performance and surfaced on Karma Chief Records in December 2023.