One glorious day some years back, a teenage high school dropout Nikki Lane (nee Nicole Lane Frady) packed a trailer with her worldly possessions. With one hand firmly gripping a steering wheel and the other flipping the bird, she said so long to her home, Greenville, South Carolina, The South and any sort of life it had suggested she should live. Western bound, she was headed to Los Angeles for no other reason than just because.
Flash forward to today and we find Lane an empowered artist, having escaped any sweet and sour small town trappings for some serious see-my-name-in-lights grandeur and artistic fulfillment. Signed recently to the flourishing Los Angeles-based indie label, IAMSOUND Records, Lane's bold vocal chops and wildly infectious personality have been making a stir in circles spanning across country to rock to indie and back again. Working with producers David Cobb (Shooter Jennings, The Secret Sisters) and Lewis Pesacov of Fool's Gold, the first release of these efforts was the four-song EP, Gone, Gone, Gone, released July 19th and will be followed by the 11-track full length "Walk of Shame" out September 27th.
Throughout "Walk of Shame," Lane weaves in and out of ballads of heartache, one-night stands, leaving, lust and longing. She plays the rambler and sometimes drunkard with such an ardent aptitude she'd fit right in alongside classic country icons like Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton. On the title track she swears never again will she wake in a stranger's bed, "with a bass drum thumping in her head" as the music drives us out of that alien apartment and down the street into the break of dawn. In "Gone, Gone, Gone," while a blistering slide guitar cries on, she croons on the chorus her tale of leaving The South, promising, "And if I leave this town I'll be gone, gone, gone and I won't be back for far too long." Meanwhile, hitting a more delicate note, Lane shows off softer sentiments and solid song-writing skills on "Save You," crooning helplessly, "Well your bad habits they're all stacking up and it's plain to see you just can't get enough. And I'm trying to break through but I'm losing sight. Oh what can I do to make it all right? How can I save you from yourself?"
Sometimes the victim, sometimes the aggressor, always the Southern sweetheart, Lane rolls through song after song, belting out her earnest poetics with such warmth and tenderness to become entirely absorbed in this music is only natural. "They're all stories," she says. "That's the only way I know how to write. All my songs have a beginning middle and an end. I want to tell you what happened to this person and what the result was."
"You grow up in The South, you grow up in a small town, your expectations are a little bit limited," she continues. "People expect you to go to a four-year college, get married and follow that Southern way of life. I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do but I knew it wasn't being offered to me."
And so we return to her story: Lane settled in L.A. and without clear direction she worked various day-to-day jobs and dabbled in fashion, getting shoes manufactured in China and painting them to sell under the Nikki Lane moniker. Five years passed and she started writing music but forsook that path after just two promising shows for a corporate job offer across the country in New York City.
"I'd always wanted to live in New York and somehow ended up talking my way into a really well paying job," she says. "That was an opportunity I couldn't say no to. And so I moved and for a year didn't even touch music. It was like something I'd just tried once. I'd written a couple songs and that was the end of it."
But like any good country singer, heartbreak brought her back to music when her boyfriend left her to record an album in Atlanta. "I was like, fuck that," she says, "Why does he get to make a record in Atlanta while I'm sitting in New York crying? So I just sat down with a guitar, I didn't have anything going on, I didn't have many friends in the city that weren't his friends, it's freezing in New York and I'd quit my job, so basically for three months I holed up in this apartment and I just wrote."
She started learning Waylon Jennings, Loretta Lynn, John Prine and Merle Haggard tunes, the sort of classic country songs that have steeped her own writing now, trying her best to strum along and building her confidence along the way. "And all of a sudden it hit me and I started writing like crazy," she says, "I wrote a whole album in a month's time and just decided I was going to make a record in Nashville. It was like my revenge record."
Empowered, in February, 2009, Nikki went to Nashville, recorded an album she self-released titled No Room for Cowboys, and returned to New York a musician. That's essentially where IAMSOUND found her and signed her and set to build the material that would become "Walk of Shame." The album serves as a forceful farewell to The South, says Lane. "We sat down and wanted to write something about leaving a place and being like, you'll be fine, I'm not coming back."
And as if Lane's history wasn't enough evidence of her well-proven knack for leaving, on her arm rests a tattoo that reads, "Wanderlust calls again." "I feel like everyday I might be better off if I could get up and go," she says. "I've had a really hard time staying put because the different scenery is what's inspiring."
Lane now lives in Nashville where she also owns and operates a vintage boutique called High Class Hillbilly, selling pieces she has collected while touring the country.
Nikki Lane's "Walk of Shame" will be released on IAMSOUND September 27th, 2011.
Lies
Nikki Lane Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
But in time you will understand
Tell me it ain't true
What is real is not a waste ideal
And the hardest part
You lied from the start
Tell me it ain't true
You've been talking 'bout things I don't wanna know
Makes me wonder how I ever fell in love with you
Tell me it ain't true
I should have seen
Seen it in your eyes
I should have known
You were hiding all those lies
Tell me it ain't true
Lies, lies, lies
You keep telling me
Lies, lies, lies
Lies, lies, lies, lies, lies
[x2]
So I threw all your things
All over her yard
All our photographs,
Broken records and guitars
Darling I'm afraid it dropped
Lies, lies, lies
You keep telling me
Lies, lies, lies
Lies, lies, lies, lies, lies
Lies, lies, lies
You keep telling me
Lies, lies, lies
Lies, lies, lies
You keep telling me
Lies, lies, lies
You keep telling me
Lies, lies, lies
You keep telling me
Lies
The song "Lies" by Nikki Lane is a breakup song that speaks about a betrayal of trust. The song is about realizing that someone you loved has been lying to you from the very beginning of your relationship. Nikki Lane sings about how she feels deceived and hurt by the lies and deceit that her partner has been feeding her, and she wants the truth to be spoken. She talks about how she should have seen the signs and recognized the lies in her partner's eyes, but she didn't. The chorus talks about the constant lies and how it hurts her.
In the bridge, Nikki Lane expresses her frustration and anger towards her partner's actions. She says that she threw all his belongings over her yard, including their photographs, broken records, and guitars. The song ends with a repetition of the chorus to highlight how much the lies have hurt her and her longing for the truth.
In summary, "Lies" is a powerful and relatable song that describes the pain that comes with being deceived by someone you once trusted and loved.
Line by Line Meaning
Funny how you think you know a man
It's ironic how you believe you know everything about someone.
But in time you will understand
But eventually, you'll come to comprehend what's true.
Tell me it ain't true
Convince me that what you're saying is false.
What is real is not a waste ideal
Truth is valuable, not something to be frivolous about.
And the hardest part
The most challenging thing about it is...
You lied from the start
You have been telling untruths since the beginning.
Baby there's something I just gotta tell you
Sweetheart, there is something crucial I must inform you about.
You've been talking 'bout things I don't wanna know
You've been discussing topics that I'd rather avoid.
Makes me wonder how I ever fell in love with you
This makes me question how I ever developed feelings for you.
Tell me it ain't true
Convince me that what you're saying is false.
I should have seen
I should have noticed.
Seen it in your eyes
I should have seen it reflected in your gaze.
I should have known
I should have anticipated it.
You were hiding all those lies
You were concealing all those falsehoods.
Tell me it ain't true
Convince me that what you're saying is false.
Lies, lies, lies
Falsehoods, falsehoods, falsehoods.
You keep telling me
You keep speaking untruthfully to me.
So I threw all your things
Consequently, I tossed all your belongings.
All over her yard
All around her property.
All our photographs,
All of our pictures,
Broken records and guitars
As well as damaged records and guitars.
Darling I'm afraid it dropped
Honey, I'm scared it fell apart.
Lies, lies, lies
Falsehoods, falsehoods, falsehoods.
You keep telling me
You keep speaking untruthfully to me.
Lies, lies, lies
Falsehoods, falsehoods, falsehoods.
Lies, lies, lies, lies, lies
Falsehoods, falsehoods, falsehoods, falsehoods, falsehoods.
Lies, lies, lies
Falsehoods, falsehoods, falsehoods.
You keep telling me
You keep speaking untruthfully to me.
Lies, lies, lies
Falsehoods, falsehoods, falsehoods.
Lies, lies, lies
Falsehoods, falsehoods, falsehoods.
You keep telling me
You keep speaking untruthfully to me.
Lies, lies, lies
Falsehoods, falsehoods, falsehoods.
You keep telling me
You keep speaking untruthfully to me.
Lies, lies, lies
Falsehoods, falsehoods, falsehoods.
Writer(s): Nicole Lane Frady Copyright: BMG Platinum Songs, BMG Platinum Songs Us, Cannily Freeload
Contributed by Aaron W. Suggest a correction in the comments below.