Nashville’s Nikki Lane is fiery and fun in person. In a recent interview with KUTX’s Jay Trachtenberg, the South Carolina native excitedly talked about everything from her burgeoning vintage clothing business (High Class Hillbilly) to solidifying her place as Austin’s next musical sweetheart. Her demeanor is right there in the title to her second album: All Or Nothin’. Lane doesn’t do anything in half-measures.
That sensibility easily comes across in her music. For All Or Nothin’, Lane worked with Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys at his in-demand Nashville studio. While he co-wrote many of the songs on the record, perhaps his best move was to stay out of Lane’s way. You can draw a straight line from Loretta Lynn and Waylon Jennings to Lane’s magnetic singing, which is inspired as much by rock-and-roll as it is by honky-tonk. Lane and her seasoned band whipped through a number of cuts in their Studio 1A performance, including the album’s rollicking standout “Right Time.” Lane admitted the song was written somewhat by accident, but it already sounds like a classic from an exciting young artist.
