Colin J. Nelson

Colin J. Nelson’s first album, entitled Posies and Teeth, was recorded over the course of a year, almost entirely in the basement (a.k.a. The Well Studio) of his house in Seattle.
“The arrangements were an experiment in layering parts, many of which could have been looped, but instead were played beginning to end, with small inconsistencies left in tact.”

There are few debut albums as cunningly able as Posies and Teeth. At a time when new releases seem to all be doing parodies of one another, Colin J. Nelson cuts through the cloud with daringly acute potency. A USC music student transplanted to Seattle in 2006, Nelson is a musician’s musician… fearless, yet fiercely precise. Delivering pop, folk and rock all in one coherent package, he is very nearly creating a genre all his own.

“I try to think of the thing I want to hear that I couldn’t pick anything out of my record collection,” he says. “The one thing that I don’t know where to go to scratch that itch, rather than try and re-engineer music I think other people seem to want to hear….”

Co-produced and accompanied by man of countless talents Jason Goessl (Obelus, Slow Skate, Sunday Evening Whiskey Club, Trimtab), the recording of Posies and Teeth marked the first time for Nelson “really collaborating” in terms of inviting others into the studio to play on his own material. He describes part of the experience as “a line to walk, specifying what they should play, yet making sure to leave room for the personality of the player to come through.”

It’s delightfully difficult to make outright comparisons of this album to that of any other artist. In terms of his influences, Nelson says he appreciates “general things they are doing, rather than a specific sound or style.” That said, generally speaking, one could be inclined to hear glimmers of Elliott Smith, Andrew Bird, and Beck at times in Posies and Teeth, but always shuffled within the landscape of a clearly original vision.

While songs such as “Bourbon and Tea” and “Angels (Ruined My Life)” have Nelson playing all parts himself, at least half of the rest of Posies and Teeth features appearances from a variety of brilliant performers in addition to Goessl, including Bill Horist (Ghidra, Master Musicians of Bukkake, Zahir), Brian Oppel (Kled, The Resets, Trimtab), Luke Polipnick, Aaron Roethe, Caitlin Sherman (Slow Skate, Sunday Evening Whiskey Club), and Tommy Zgonc.

Colin J. Nelson’s current live band is comprised of Jason Goessl (guitar), Jack Nelson (bass guitar, backing vocals), Caitlin Sherman (keyboards, backing vocals), and Tommy Zgonc (drums).