WHO IS JOE NOLAN? SIX SHOOTER’S NEWEST FACE ON THE FOLK SCENE FUSES NORTH COUNTRY CHARM WITH SENSITIVE SONGWRITING.

Headbanger meets heartbreaker in Joe Nolan, the rising young songwriter whose new album, Tornado, was just released by Six Shooter Records. On stage, Joe’s intense, intimate performances are at once guttural and ethereal, and of no time or place whatsoever. But when he turns his baseball hat backwards and tells stories of trapping raccoons in cardboard boxes, it’s clear that the other side of this sensitive songwriter is a kid from Fort Saskatchewan who kept his guitar playing a secret from his high school friends. In Joe Nolan, you see a fascinating contrast between the rough edges of small town life and the poetic refinement of his song craft.

In “Hangin’ at the Garagemahal,” Joe Nolan talks about growing up on the “good side” of the river in Fort Saskatchewan, AB, which records he listened to through the floor while his parents played bridge until 2am, and all the money he made busking:

Tornado hit the streets on January 28, 2014, and Six Shooter marked the occasion at The Cameron House with a short and sweet set from Joe, a room packed full of industry, friends & fans, and, in honour of Joe’s prairie roots, all the pierogies we could eat. Now the reviews are coming in, and Tornado is making a strong impression, with high marks from the Globe & Mail, Exclaim, No Depression and others.

Tornado is a collection of songs about women (older women, mostly) and love (break-ups, mostly). Did Somebody Call The Cops, “one of the album’s showstoppers,” (Edmonton Journal) is a slow-burning song about a ‘relationship hitting the bottom,’ says Nolan. See a new lyric video for Did Somebody Call The Cops, directed by Jeth Weinrich, here: