The closest thing you’ll get to blues music on network television or mainstream radio these days is a cover of a song on a reality singing competition show like American Idol or The Voice, or a tribute to a legendary artist at the Grammy Awards. The tributes are usually memorable but fade from the public consciousness within a few hours, and the covers on Idol or The Voice are typically scaled back to just over a minute and a half, therefore losing a lot of the build that gives those songs one of their greatest assets. Nicole Nelson and Dwight Richter, better known as Dwight + Nicole, are carrying out the time-honored tradition of the blues, while incorporating many other elements from genres across the board. The pair are now joined by Ezra Oklan on drums, but I spoke to the aforementioned pair about what it means to carry this legendary sound into today.
“I loved a lot of different kinds of music growing up and I think that what I do is bring a lot of those sounds to the table,” said Nicole, who is a force of nature, a complete and utter powerhouse. “I’m trying not to edit myself and be a genre-specific kind of singer. If you listen to our whole catalog, we’re really tapping into all of these different emotions all of the time musically.” She lists some of the greats, like Big Mama Thornton, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holliday, and Big Maybelle as some of her influences, saying what they were doing felt natural to her.
“It felt like I could slip into it like a slipper,” she said. “I could just get in there and do what I wanted, and most of the time it was the right thing.”
Dwight, who often takes a backseat to Nicole vocally but still creates moments for himself to shine, also took inspiration from a plethora of artists and styles.
“I grew up with eclectic music as well,” he said. “Country, blues, my grandfather was in a big band… but what I liked about all of that music was that a lot of it had that real feeling. Jimmy Rushing, who sang with Count Basie, had a little bit of edge to him. On the pop side, Frank Sinatra, and in country, George Jones. But B.B. King was one of the first to really hit me over the head.” They’re listed as Pop on Apple Music, but aren’t particular about their label. “We do a lot of stuff that is definitely not blues,” said Nicole. “We’ve been told by our blues fans that we are not blues. They let us know.”
Dwight agreed. “You feel the roots,” he said. “That is the main thing. They can call us whatever they want.”
While you’ll probably find plenty of stellar blues/soul/jazz musicians busking on the streets or playing in smaller rooms in cities like New York, Memphis or Detroit on a nightly basis, there are few within the mainstream who still honor those genres on the biggest stages. Brittany Howard, Hozier, and Brandi Carlile come to mind immediately, and Nicole agreed emphatically. Dwight referenced Leon Bridges and Ray LaMontagne, while Nicole added Bahamas and Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats. “These people are real songwriters,” said Nicole. “Not that it’s always about that… sometimes a voice and a song come together and you wouldn’t want it any other way. But, a lot of the time, that direct expression, how you write the song, play the song, sing the song… there’s just a special thing about that.”
The pair are promoting their EP, Further, which came out this past October. It is led by the stellar, visceral single, “The Next Go Round,” a song full of a complicated mix of emotions such as desperation, hope, and personal demons; “I just don’t know why doesn’t anybody stay in one place anymore. Maybe the next go round, we’ll get it right.”
Nicole’s vocal performance is top tier for their discography, and is, arguably, as impressive and effecting as anything in recent music, like Ariana Grande’s “My Hair” and Billie Eilish’s “Happier Than Ever.” The video stars, and is directed by, Jim Dandee, whose gritty, emotional performance in the video, in which he displays issues with alcoholism, loneliness, and heartbreak, elevated the song even, no pun intended, further. The pair met Dandee in early 2019, but work on the video did not start until over a year later, after the initial wave of COVID had begun. “He did the whole thing on his own,” said Nicole. “At that point, I wasn’t interested in directing this video from home. We just wanted to trust him to play with it and dive into it and do his own thing.”
Dwight got more technical. “Instead of doing what we wanted to do, he kind of used it as a vehicle to explain what he had been going through personally in his own life,” he said. “When we got the first cut back, we were taken aback because it’s really his thing. What he did fits with the message but that’s like every song…. we write the song, then the song means something to you so it’s part your song, part our song.”
Dwight + Nicole currently reside in Burlington, VT. Not so typical for a blues band, but a place they both feel at home and a place they felt comfortable “going inward” in during the pandemic. “It’s hard for me to think about being far from the mountains and the ocean here,” said Nicole. “It probably would be a good career move to go where people still really give a shit about current blues music, but I don’t care enough about making moves in a career strategy way versus feeling at home and happy.” Dwight, who is originally from New Jersey, agreed, citing experiences over location. “I opened up for Otis Rush,” he said. “I learned more just watching him and talking to him than I would have if I’d tried to transplant myself somewhere else.”
While they did take part in some fundraisers and collaborated with local venues during the lockdown, they tried to stay away from the digital platforms that most artists ran to in order to maintain a somewhat-physical connection with their fans. “I felt like, ‘I don’t have to be shouting from the rooftops right now, I need to be listenin’,” said Nicole, who used the time to be productive, organizing her home and writing music. “Personally, I stopped posting, except for little check-ins.”
Dwight expressed his observations. “We did see some artists go the opposite route,” he said. “Of all ages. I think they needed that connection. We enjoyed watching some of them and we did some ourselves, but it was time to back off a little bit.”
While the pair have already had an incredible amount of success, performing with the likes of Melissa Etheridge and Mavis Staples and playing major festivals, they want to keep pushing forward. Dwight wants to play SNL, while Nicole simply just wants to get back on the road and tour again, particularly playing smaller theatre shows in Europe.
“I want more of that intimate space,” she said. “We’re not here to get the party started, we want to share this thing and we want everyone who paid money to be there to walk away with that nugget… to know what music can do.” For Dwight, it’s not about the awards or the accolades, it’s about the connection, especially after having gone without it for so long during pandemic time. “Sitting down swapping stories and just connecting, it’s the hang of the whole thing,” he said.
“The highlight of it all is what you walk away with. It’s the people…. I like people. Real connections. Every performance we’ve done as things have opened up… they all mean more. You really take stock and are thankful for your time with anyone in any situation that is musical or music related, because, for a long time, we didn’t have it.”
You can check out Dwight + Nicole’s music, here:
Check out the videos for “The Next Go Round” and my personal favorite “Wait”, above, and be sure to follow Dwight + Nicole on social media, linked below:
Instagram / Twitter / Facebook / YouTube
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