I. THE BEGINNING
Child of the corn – Six-string discovery – Spiritual tumble – Exodus.
1. Nathan Wade grew up surrounded by the churches and cornfields of Indiana, his nose deep in the Bible if he wasn’t already taking the good word door-to-door. 2. But dark clouds did gather overhead on the fateful day that he discovered his grandfather’s National guitar, collecting dust in the family attic for decades; entranced as he was by the Devil’s music, Nathan began devoting long days and nights to song instead of reading scripture. 3. In a few short years, Nathan had tumbled off the spiritual wagon all together and fled the Midwest on an exodus from religion, hitting the road to who-knows-where.
II. THE APOCALYPSE
Tribulation - City of refuge - Lomax discovered - Fever - Apocalypse then.
1. Hard times ahead were filled with travel and tribulation, with dark days lost on the east coast and more days of reckoning in the painted desert of Utah. 2. Seeking refuge in Seattle, the land that Grunge begot, Nathan took solace in the field recordings of Alan Lomax. 3. Untold hours were spent under the divine and healing influence of Shaker hymns, chain gang chants, mountain ballads, and front porch blues, all of which stirred a feverish spell of writing that led him to pen acoustic folk tales steeped in religion, drug abuse, murder, and Biblical apocrypha. 4. Nathan had to invent a genre to describe his new music and he thereby dubbed it Post-Apocalypse Americana.
III. THE RETURN
Dead leaves - Borne by internet - Roused by radio - Seeks ne’er-do-wells.
1. With a parcel of songs in tow and winter closing in, Nathan set to work on his debut long player called The Dead Leaves Sing. 2. Recorded live in a 19th Century schoolhouse with only acoustic instruments, the album was a collection of darkly modern, Lomax-inspired field recordings that, at the speed of the internet, became an unexpected hit. 3. Critical praise and spins on radio stations around the world (including Seattle’s saintly KEXP) led to extensive touring in the year that followed, and while Nathan’s solo shows were becoming a notoriously intense affair, he knew the best way to deliver his strange cathartic gospel was with a band of ne’er-do-wells much like himself.
IV. THE PIONEERS
Alter and Collins - Unholy trinity - Plugged-in - The Dark Pioneers.
1. Almost by chance, Nathan met Brian Alter, a powerful and inventive drummer who had also fled Indiana for Seattle; a kindred spirit, Brian had grown up not more than 15 minutes from Nathan’s hometown and yet the two had never met. 2. Weeks later, a continued streak of good fortune found Nathan in a Northwest tavern watching in slack-jawed wonder as Sam Collins plucked and bowed an upright bass like the world was about to end. 3. This unholy trinity converged and a clear chemistry developed between them. 4. With a little prompting from his new brethren, Nathan plugged in his grandfather’s National guitar for the first time in over a decade and the music immediately strayed from folk tradition and took a turn for the heavy. 5. There, in the underground confines of an ill-lit shelter, a new electrified sound erupted and The Dark Pioneers were born.