The Andy T-Nick Nixon Band, fronted by guitarist Andy T and vocalist Nick Nixon, displays musicianship at its highest. As Blues Underground Network said, “Simply put, Andy T and James ‘Nick’ Nixon have quickly risen to the top of many people’s lists of Great Collaborations.”
Their new release on Blind Pig Records, Numbers Man, was produced by renowned Texas guitarist Anson Funderburgh, and features the great Kim Wilson’s harmonica on one of the tracks.
Guitarist “Andy T” Talamantez arrived in Nashville from Southern California in 2008 and teamed up with local blues and R&B legend vocalist/guitarist James “Nick” Nixon in 2011. After meeting Nick and watching him perform, Andy knew that they would make an unstoppable combination. As Ted Drozdowski of the Nashville Scene put it, “When Andy first heard Nick, he knew he’d found his foil for the group he envisioned — an outfit that could swing effortlessly between West Coast jump blues stompers, hardcore Chicago and Texas string-fests, and Louisiana swamp grooves.”
Andy T’s jazz-tinged guitar style is influenced by T-Bone Walker, B.B. King, Magic Sam, and Albert Collins among others, yet it remains his own. He was born and raised in Southern California and was always interested in guitar. He worked for twenty-three years as a manufacturing engineer in the aerospace industry but during that entire time he never stopped performing in local bands. In 1997 he quit his day job to join and tour with Smokey Wilson’s band. That lasted for two years, after which he played in Guitar Shorty’s band for a period of five years. During that time he toured internationally and performed with a long list of major blues artists around the country, learning how to back up a vocalist with economy and perfection as he honed his own playing style.
The velvet-voiced Nixon, whose singing recalls Jimmy Witherspoon and Billy Eckstine, was born and raised in Nashville, where got his first taste of singing through the gospel tunes he learned every Sunday in church. In high school, he sang opera. The choir director, a famous opera singer, “found out I had this voice and he had me singing opera. It was kind of put on me and I really didn’t like that style of music,” Nixon says. “But I did it and the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do was to un-do that opera-style singing when I started in with rock-n-roll and the blues. But I did learn a lot of voice control (singing opera) that I still use now. The clarity of opera is something that I still use, too, but I just put in more gravel, a little more dirt with it when I’m singing the blues.”
Nixon quickly went on to become an important part of the musical mix in Nashville and something of an institution in the Music City. In the early 60’s he was the lead singer for the popular group King James and The Sceptres – one of Music City’s first integrated bands. They would play co-bills with the likes of Lazy Lester, Rufus Thomas, and Cootie Stark, to name a few. Nick was also a long-time member of The New Imperials, a soul group with a forty-five year history, performing with many of the top blues and R&B artists in the world.
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Their new release on Blind Pig Records, Numbers Man, was produced by renowned Texas guitarist Anson Funderburgh, and features the great Kim Wilson’s harmonica on one of the tracks.
Guitarist “Andy T” Talamantez arrived in Nashville from Southern California in 2008 and teamed up with local blues and R&B legend vocalist/guitarist James “Nick” Nixon in 2011. After meeting Nick and watching him perform, Andy knew that they would make an unstoppable combination. As Ted Drozdowski of the Nashville Scene put it, “When Andy first heard Nick, he knew he’d found his foil for the group he envisioned — an outfit that could swing effortlessly between West Coast jump blues stompers, hardcore Chicago and Texas string-fests, and Louisiana swamp grooves.”
Andy T’s jazz-tinged guitar style is influenced by T-Bone Walker, B.B. King, Magic Sam, and Albert Collins among others, yet it remains his own. He was born and raised in Southern California and was always interested in guitar. He worked for twenty-three years as a manufacturing engineer in the aerospace industry but during that entire time he never stopped performing in local bands. In 1997 he quit his day job to join and tour with Smokey Wilson’s band. That lasted for two years, after which he played in Guitar Shorty’s band for a period of five years. During that time he toured internationally and performed with a long list of major blues artists around the country, learning how to back up a vocalist with economy and perfection as he honed his own playing style.
The velvet-voiced Nixon, whose singing recalls Jimmy Witherspoon and Billy Eckstine, was born and raised in Nashville, where got his first taste of singing through the gospel tunes he learned every Sunday in church. In high school, he sang opera. The choir director, a famous opera singer, “found out I had this voice and he had me singing opera. It was kind of put on me and I really didn’t like that style of music,” Nixon says. “But I did it and the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do was to un-do that opera-style singing when I started in with rock-n-roll and the blues. But I did learn a lot of voice control (singing opera) that I still use now. The clarity of opera is something that I still use, too, but I just put in more gravel, a little more dirt with it when I’m singing the blues.”
Nixon quickly went on to become an important part of the musical mix in Nashville and something of an institution in the Music City. In the early 60’s he was the lead singer for the popular group King James and The Sceptres – one of Music City’s first integrated bands. They would play co-bills with the likes of Lazy Lester, Rufus Thomas, and Cootie Stark, to name a few. Nick was also a long-time member of The New Imperials, a soul group with a forty-five year history, performing with many of the top blues and R&B artists in the world.
The Andy T-Nick Nixon Band, fronted by guitarist Andy T and vocalist Nick Nixon, displays musicianship at its highest. As Blues Underground Network said, “Simply put, Andy T and James ‘Nick’ Nixon have quickly risen to the top of many people’s lists of Great Collaborations.”
Their new release on Blind Pig Records, Numbers Man, was produced by renowned Texas guitarist Anson Funderburgh, and features the great Kim Wilson’s harmonica on one of the tracks.
Guitarist “Andy T” Talamantez arrived in Nashville from Southern California in 2008 and teamed up with local blues and R&B legend vocalist/guitarist James “Nick” Nixon in 2011. After meeting Nick and watching him perform, Andy knew that they would make an unstoppable combination. As Ted Drozdowski of the Nashville Scene put it, “When Andy first heard Nick, he knew he’d found his foil for the group he envisioned — an outfit that could swing effortlessly between West Coast jump blues stompers, hardcore Chicago and Texas string-fests, and Louisiana swamp grooves.”
Andy T’s jazz-tinged guitar style is influenced by T-Bone Walker, B.B. King, Magic Sam, and Albert Collins among others, yet it remains his own. He was born and raised in Southern California and was always interested in guitar. He worked for twenty-three years as a manufacturing engineer in the aerospace industry but during that entire time he never stopped performing in local bands. In 1997 he quit his day job to join and tour with Smokey Wilson’s band. That lasted for two years, after which he played in Guitar Shorty’s band for a period of five years. During that time he toured internationally and performed with a long list of major blues artists around the country, learning how to back up a vocalist with economy and perfection as he honed his own playing style.
The velvet-voiced Nixon, whose singing recalls Jimmy Witherspoon and Billy Eckstine, was born and raised in Nashville, where got his first taste of singing through the gospel tunes he learned every Sunday in church. In high school, he sang opera. The choir director, a famous opera singer, “found out I had this voice and he had me singing opera. It was kind of put on me and I really didn’t like that style of music,” Nixon says. “But I did it and the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do was to un-do that opera-style singing when I started in with rock-n-roll and the blues. But I did learn a lot of voice control (singing opera) that I still use now. The clarity of opera is something that I still use, too, but I just put in more gravel, a little more dirt with it when I’m singing the blues.”
Nixon quickly went on to become an important part of the musical mix in Nashville and something of an institution in the Music City. In the early 60’s he was the lead singer for the popular group King James and The Sceptres – one of Music City’s first integrated bands. They would play co-bills with the likes of Lazy Lester, Rufus Thomas, and Cootie Stark, to name a few. Nick was also a long-time member of The New Imperials, a soul group with a forty-five year history, performing with many of the top blues and R&B artists in the world.
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Their new release on Blind Pig Records, Numbers Man, was produced by renowned Texas guitarist Anson Funderburgh, and features the great Kim Wilson’s harmonica on one of the tracks.
Guitarist “Andy T” Talamantez arrived in Nashville from Southern California in 2008 and teamed up with local blues and R&B legend vocalist/guitarist James “Nick” Nixon in 2011. After meeting Nick and watching him perform, Andy knew that they would make an unstoppable combination. As Ted Drozdowski of the Nashville Scene put it, “When Andy first heard Nick, he knew he’d found his foil for the group he envisioned — an outfit that could swing effortlessly between West Coast jump blues stompers, hardcore Chicago and Texas string-fests, and Louisiana swamp grooves.”
Andy T’s jazz-tinged guitar style is influenced by T-Bone Walker, B.B. King, Magic Sam, and Albert Collins among others, yet it remains his own. He was born and raised in Southern California and was always interested in guitar. He worked for twenty-three years as a manufacturing engineer in the aerospace industry but during that entire time he never stopped performing in local bands. In 1997 he quit his day job to join and tour with Smokey Wilson’s band. That lasted for two years, after which he played in Guitar Shorty’s band for a period of five years. During that time he toured internationally and performed with a long list of major blues artists around the country, learning how to back up a vocalist with economy and perfection as he honed his own playing style.
The velvet-voiced Nixon, whose singing recalls Jimmy Witherspoon and Billy Eckstine, was born and raised in Nashville, where got his first taste of singing through the gospel tunes he learned every Sunday in church. In high school, he sang opera. The choir director, a famous opera singer, “found out I had this voice and he had me singing opera. It was kind of put on me and I really didn’t like that style of music,” Nixon says. “But I did it and the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do was to un-do that opera-style singing when I started in with rock-n-roll and the blues. But I did learn a lot of voice control (singing opera) that I still use now. The clarity of opera is something that I still use, too, but I just put in more gravel, a little more dirt with it when I’m singing the blues.”
Nixon quickly went on to become an important part of the musical mix in Nashville and something of an institution in the Music City. In the early 60’s he was the lead singer for the popular group King James and The Sceptres – one of Music City’s first integrated bands. They would play co-bills with the likes of Lazy Lester, Rufus Thomas, and Cootie Stark, to name a few. Nick was also a long-time member of The New Imperials, a soul group with a forty-five year history, performing with many of the top blues and R&B artists in the world.
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401 Mason Street, San Francisco, CA 94102
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