This month we welcome B.K. (Nick) Nicholson to the porch. Nick is a singer-songwriter who plays mandolin in two Southern California bands, High Mountain Road and his own band Desperado Bluegrass. He is a multi-instrumentalist who not only enjoys band work, but also writing, arranging, and producing his own works and those of other artists as well.
Dave: Hi Nick. Tell the readers how you first got hooked on bluegrass.
Nick: I’d played acoustic guitar for many years and while looking for jam opportunities I was steered to a bluegrass jam in Encinitas that was beginner friendly. Because of my musical background with acoustic easy listening, country, and southern gospel, there was a sense of familiarity about bluegrass that was comfortable. I’d wanted at various times to pick up the banjo, so I acquired one and after six months decided to try mandolin. The rest as they say is history.
Dave: What instruments do you play?
Nick: Mandolin, guitar, banjo, electric bass, piano, and trumpet.
Dave: What did you start with?
Nick: My first instrument was classical trumpet, which I studied for ten years. I adopted jazz and R&B styles early on and was playing trumpet in an R&B cover band on the weekends in high school.
Dave: Was your family musical?
Nick: Very much so. My mother is a retired professional music teacher from the Philadelphia public school system. There was always a piano in the house, a stereo console in the living room, and music in the air. My father sang, and I was the eldest sibling, so I was first of my brothers to study an instrument.
Dave: Who was your biggest musical influence growing up?
Nick: Initially it would have to be my mother because she set the tone and was nurturing to a degree. I had many influences as a child: Motown, Rick Nelson of the Ozzie & Harriet show, and the Top 40 AM radio of the late ‘60s.
Dave: What about later?
Nick: Later I got heavily into jazz and R&B because of my trumpet playing. When I took up the guitar at 17, I got more into rock ‘n’ roll, and eventually acoustic styles like Crosby, Stills and Nash, Neil Young, and blues styles like the Allman Brothers.
Dave: Do you do any composing?
Nick: Early on I started writing on the piano, and I consider myself first and foremost a songwriter. I’ve written, produced, and recorded multiple sessions over the years and a sample of my work can be found on SoundCloud. I’ve only recently begun to expand my songwriting to the bluegrass and old time genres.
Dave: How do you approach a new song or tune?
Nick: If we’re talking about learning a new song, first it has to speak to me. I then learn the melody while figuring out the chord changes. Writing is completely different. I just get songs or melodies in my head, which I record first and then work out later.
Dave: Tell us about some of the bluegrass songs you have written?
Nick: I’ve written several instrumentals that I would classify as mando-fiddle tunes. One has been recorded, it’s called Mariam’s Song and it is a regular feature of live performances. It will be on the upcoming solo project that I plan on releasing.
Dave: Tell us about the bands you’ve played in.
Nick: I played in an R&B cover band and a jazz-rock band in high school. In the early ‘80s I was in a four-piece acoustic ensemble a-la Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, then a trio of vocalists with two of us playing guitar. That was it until 2011 when I got into a “buddy” band called the North County Boys where I played banjo and guitar.
Dave: What about bluegrass bands?
Nick: Since September 2012 I’ve been a member of High Mountain Road (HMR), a band that plays a mix of traditional and contemporary bluegrass. We have three vocalists who sing lead, and we feel that our harmonies and singing are unique. I started my own band Desperado Bluegrass in December of 2015, and they are what I call “Outlaw Grass,” a mix of traditional, contemporary, Southern blues-rock done bluegrass style, all at a very high-energy feel and speed.
Dave: What about the HMR harmony’s do you feel are unique?
Nick: The tenor and quality of our voices are really different. My voice is kinda chameleon-like, our guitarist has a country-folk quality in the lower registers, and our banjo player has the classic “Nashville” sweet-tenor voice.
Dave: What about Desperado Bluegrass?
Nick: Desperado Bluegrass features the fiddler from HMR, John-Michael Brooks, who I believe is the best fiddler in California. That’s saying a lot, but besides his chops, nobody I’ve heard can touch his rich tone. He’s a Mark O’Connor protégé from Berkeley who I’ve been fortunate to connect with on both a personal and musical level.
Dave: Do you play any old time or other traditional music?
Nick: I play fiddle tunes on the mandolin, but generally don’t attend old time sessions, more out of scheduling. I also play a lot of different music on different instruments. As an example I play piano in church every week.
Dave: What fiddle tunes do you love?
Nick: Love might be a strong word, but I like Soldier’s Joy, Salt Creek, Cherokee Shuffle, Forked Deer, Swallowtail Jig, Garry Owen, Blackberry Blossom…kinda the standards.
Dave: Do you have any recordings planned?
Nick: I’m putting the finishing touches on a solo project that I anticipate will be ready by the beginning of summer. It’s a mix of bluegrass, country, acoustic easy listening, and gospel. Titled appropriately “Eclectricity.”
Dave: Have you ever taken these bands on the road?
Nick: Desperado and HMR have both traveled out of state to gigs, but it wasn’t a tour.
Dave: What interests you when you are not playing music?
Nick: I’m a renaissance kind of guy with multiple interests: sports, sci-fi, database programming, history, movies, and cuisine among others.
Dave: Do you teach music?
Nick: Currently I have one mandolin student. I think it’s important to have a balance between nurturing and reinforcing right habits.
Dave: Are there any shows coming up this year you are looking forward to?
Nick: HMR has been busy in ‘17 twice and Desperado is booked for Pahrump Nevada Bluegrass Festival and the Route 66 Bluegrass Festival so far. Both bands are looking forward to 2017!
Dave: What shows in the past are memorable?
Nick: HMR at Summergrass in 2015, as that was our first big festival, and Desperado at the Southern Nevada Bluegrass Music Society’s Logandale Fall Festival this past October. It was a first class regional show that we acquitted ourselves well at. And there was a rat in our fiddler’s motel room –classic! HMR has also played the Viking Festival in Vista, and they really treat us well, even though we’re not Vikings!
Dave: Have you played any CBA events?
Nick: Desperado recently played a showcase set at the San Diego Bluegrass Society room at the Great 48 jam in Bakersfield but both HMR and Desperado would love to do more!
Dave: I first met with you at the Great 48 and I recall you are really into Bill Monroe, what do you like about his style?
Nick: Monroe style is a raw, heavily blues, mountain style of playing that just speaks to my musical soul. It’s not a clean, classical, or folk style that tends to dominate mandolin players these days. I love its raw, almost angry, energy. Most people don’t get it, but that’s OK as it’s not for everybody. Chris Henry put it his way: “Monroe style is a spiritual thing. It’s a small chosen few that are initiated. Non-believers are like atheists.”
Dave: Are there any particular eras of bluegrass that are your favorite? Again, I’m pretty eclectic. I mean, who else does the Steve Miller Band’s “Take The Money And Run” or the Allman Brothers’ “Ramblin Man” in a bluegrass set? But I prefer the first generation of Bluegrass…Monroe.
Dave: Describe some musical challenges you have had and how you overcame them.
Nick: My biggest hurdle with tremolo picking was a loose wrist. I used to weight train back in my Navy days. Wrapping wrists is common because you don’t want your wrists to sublux or move, so as a result my wrists are very tight. I had to do stretching exercises and loose motion drills to get my right wrist loose enough to become competent on the mandolin. Loose wrist, loose pick grip.
Dave: Have you always enjoyed singing?
Nick: I’ve been singing my whole life and it’s second nature to me. I’ve been blessed with a good ear and used to practice singing harmony religiously, so it all comes as second nature these days.
Dave: Who are your favorite singers?
Nick: Multiple genre response: The Cathedrals Quartet with Danny Funderburk on tenor, Steve Green, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Earth Wind & Fire, Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, Steve Perry, Ricky Skaggs, Tony Rice, Brad Delp (Boston), Motown, Crosby Stills and Nash, the Eagles, Chicago (Robert Lamm, Terry Kath and Pete Cetera), Whitney Houston, Aretha, Pavarotti…
Dave: What other artists excite you?
Nick: Too many to list, but a quick bluegrass answer would be Ricky Skaggs, Bluegrass Album Band, Rounder 0044, David Grisman, Johnson Mountain Boys, Jim & Jesse, and the Stanley Brothers to name a few. It all starts with Monroe for me!
Dave: What make and model instruments do you play?
Nick: I used to have a bunch: three guitars, two banjos, four mandolins… All I own is my mandolin soul-mate: a 1994 Gibson F5-L made in Bozeman, Montana by Bruce Weber’s team and signed by Larry Barnwell. It was Zach Ostgaard’s for about four years, and he had purchased it from Jeff Fleck of Burning Heart Bluegrass. This mandolin is known in bluegrass circles in California as “Zach’s mandolin,” and it was distressed enough by Zach that it looks and sounds like a vintage Gibson. I’ve let several touring pros from Nashville play it – Nathan Livers, Michael Cleveland, Adam Steffey, Sierra Hull, Jesse Brock, and Zack Autry to name a few – and every one of them gives it a strong endorsement that usually goes “that’s a really good F5!” Tom Mullen, who played a long time ago with the Bluegrass Cardinals, said it was one of the best mandolins he’s ever played, including Loars! I really don’t know about all that, but it’s a “good’un.”
Dave: Any final thoughts or things you want to share with the readers?
Nick: Yes, bluegrass to me is soul music. You have to be a man, woman, or child that has the ability to make a “soul” connection. Bluegrass is not the noise of the masses; so many people just don’t get it! Bluegrass music is full of ancient tones, joyful rhythms, and high lonesome wailings that connect on all the emotional levels of the human soul. It is spiritual, and once you connect to it, you cannot deny its power or reality!
Dave: Thanks so much for your time Nick, yours is an interesting story
Nick: Your welcome Dave, I’m looking forward to reading this.
Reference
B.K. Nicholson on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/b-k-nicholson
High Mountain Road: https://www.facebook.com/HighMountainRoad
Desperado Bluegrass: https://www.facebook.com/Desperadosbluegrass/
San Diego Bluegrass Society: http://www.sandiegobluegrass.org/
