South of Here, the fourth full-length studio release from Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, reckons with a lifetime of pain and trauma and transforms it into a stirring and soul- baring rumination on love, loss, hope and resolve. Following And It’s Still Alright, Rateliff’s beloved 2020 solo LP, and The Future, The Night Sweat’s acclaimed 2021 release, the new album blends both sides of his immense talent: emotionally potent, vivid storytelling and the rugged, R&B revivalism that has powered the band to world-wide acclaim over the past decade.
Produced by Brad Cook (Bon Iver, Waxahatchee, Kevin Morby) with principle recording at Sonic Ranch outside of El Paso, TX, South of Here was written by Nathaniel Rateliff and performed by The Night Sweats: Nathaniel Rateliff (vocals, guitar), Luke Mossman (guitar), Joseph Pope III (bass), Mark Shusterman, (Hammond B3, piano), Patrick Meese (drums, piano), Daniel Hardaway (trumpet), Jeff Dazey (tenor sax), and Andreas Wild (baritone sax). Playing with intuitive beauty all in service of the song, the Sweats are in peak form, while Cook’s production captures the group’s soulful fire with immediacy and purpose.
Songs such as “David and Goliath,” “Heartless,” “Get Used to the Night,” and “South of Here” reach across damaged connections with brutal honesty, and others like “Remember I Was a Dancer,” “The Center of Me,” “Everybody Wants Something,” and “Times Makes Fools of Us All,” are cinematic portrayals of self-doubt and innocence lost.
Walking a line between cutting truths and joyful noise, the band delivers 11 original tracks with exquisite warmth and empathy. Bound by the struggle for identity and the search for belonging, South of Here reverberates with the understanding that we’re all in this beautiful mess together.
