Nick Norman
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Nick Norman Biography
Nick Norman brings humor, heart, southern groove, and big-voiced swagger to the country genre, nodding to the storytellers and soul singers who came before him while still creating a modern sound of his own.
It's a sound built for front porches, listening rooms, car stereos, and campfires. A sound whose melodies and organic arrangements feel fresh one minute, and warmly worn-in the next.
With All In, Nick takes that sound to new heights, mixing his ruggedly sharp delivery — the result of a schedule that's kept him onstage, daily for stretches of six to eight hours at a time for most of the past decade, sometimes playing as many as three shows a day — with contributions from a dream team of collaborators. Included in the mix is co-producer, co-writer, and longtime friend Lee Brice, who helped encourage Nick's very first recording session more than two decades earlier.
Years before songs like the soulful "Love Don't Fool Me Again" became crowd favorites at his nightly gigs, Nick Norman grew up in Columbia, South Carolina. It was an inspiring place to be raised. Home state heroes like Edwin McCain and Hootie & the Blowfish were on the radio, sharing the same airspace as icons like Stevie Wonder and The Band. Nick soaked it all in — mixing the rootsy sounds of the FM dial with the awe-inspiring power of the gospel singers he'd hear every Sunday morning at the local church.
"It was how I first learned that you can truly make people feel what you feel, by believing in what you are singing," he says. "The people in that choir sang from their hearts, and that is something I believe that cannot be faked."
Nick began singing from his heart too, developing a booming baritone that was raw, robust, and real. While attending church camp as a 15 year old, he teamed up with another singer — Lee Brice, who'd eventually find fame as the man behind hits like "I Don't Dance" and "A Woman Like You" — to create a makeshift recording studio in a pump house located on the church grounds.
The two spent their time recording gospel songs, laying the foundation not only for their own careers as a soulful country frontmen, but also for the eventual formation of Pump House Records. This new, unique collective co-founded by Lee, award- winning songwriter Rob Hatch, engineer/songwriter Elisha Hoffman, and Derek and Kristi Hutchins, was born in late 2019 with the goal of transforming Nick's self-made success — including a wildly-dedicated following in his adopted hometown of Key West, Florida — into a national, widespread movement.
"Nick is like a mix of Van Morrison and early Zac Brown, with a little bit of Levon Helm," says Rob Hatch, who recorded Nick's new album at Southern Ground Studios in Nashville. Lee agrees, adding, "He always had a passion for singing, but after moving to Key West and singing multiple hours a day, six days a week, for more than a decade, he's at a whole new level. His stuff is so soulful and so groovy. When we started working on his record, we knew we needed to keep it simple, and just focus on the combination of a band and his voice. There are no computer tricks. It's so pure."
That purity can be heard on songs like the title track, a timeless-sounding piano ballad about battle scars, resilience, and growth. "I'll be coming out on the other side a better man," Nick promises during the chorus, digging into his gospel roots for a staggeringly soulful performance.
Elsewhere, All In offers everything from the New Orleans-flavored heat of "Cock Crows" to the sly, countrified bounce of "Porch Man." If the vocal performances sound fluid and natural, that's because Nick road-tested the songs during the months leading up to the recording sessions, fine-tuning every line in front of his nightly crowds. And if the Muscle Shoals-worthy grooves and sympathetic arrangements sound similarly effortless, that's because Lee — in addition to co-writing several of the songs with Nick — also helped hand-pick the band, bringing musicians like pianist Gordon Mote and harmony singer Rebecca Lynn Howard into the fold.
Like its name suggests, All In is an all or nothing effort. “I’ve worked for years and now’s the time,” says Nick. “I’m giving it all I have and am getting to do it with some of my best friends who are also artists. I couldn’t ask for a better set up.”
Nick has spent years building a thriving career on his own terms, usually alone. He's been a soul singer. A storyteller. A road warrior. A one-man show. Now, he's joining hands with others who share his vision for analog southern music at its most soulfully authentic, resulting in a collaboratively-created album that nods to the promise of Nick’s 2010 release, Hey Cheater, while also catapulting its star into a new realm.
All In isn't just a testament to one man's blue-collar work ethic, super-sized songwriting chops, well marinated vocals and melting-pot mix of countrified sounds. It's also a proof that in today's individualized world, a great song, delivered with conviction, can still bring people together.
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