Photo by Gabriel Cristóver Pérez/KUTX
What do Rhett Miller, Bob Schneider, Justin Bieber, and the Dixie Chicks have in common? They all (somewhat inadvertently) helped create NHD. It’s a “supertrio” featuring Salim Nourallah, Billy Harvey, and Alex Dezen. Nourallah has collaborated both as a songwriter and producer with Miller and the Old 97’s. Billy Harvey is an Austin musician who came to the group highly recommended by Schneider. And Dezen has one of the stranger resumes: he’s written songs for Justin Bieber while also fronting the Damnwells, a country-tinged indie rock group from Brooklyn.
The fourth NHD influencer was Marty Maguire of the Dixie Chicks, who recorded the band’s debut, And The Devil Went Up To Portland, at her studio in Austin. In a nod to their love for the Beatles, all three NHD members write and sing on the album. They don’t necessarily sound like the Beatles–the record kicks off with an awesome cover Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys Are Back In Town”–but that sense of camaraderie is there, evidenced in the Nourallah-led, country-ish story-song “I Sent A Postcard.”
“I Sent A Postcard” appears on And The Devil Went Up To Portland, out in October.
–Art Levy // host, Sunday 10 a.m. – 2 p.m., producer, My KUTX
