Have you ever felt like your life has been stifled in the location you’re living? Have you ever felt like it wasn’t ever really home and that life had somehow moved along in the blink of an eye? If so then you’ll certainly releate to many songs on Kasey Anderson’s Nowhere Nights album, an album all about his life and times (friendships made and bridges burned) over about eight years of life in Bellingham, WA.  Bellingham is a sleepy college town that’s home to Western Washington University and not far from the Canadian border (and that’s about all that can be said about it).  “Bellingham Blues” tells the story of the Portland, OR native’s time there and how he kept searching for something more but seemingly never found it.  It’s an acoustic country-rocker that works as the perfect starting track to this ‘concept album.’ 

“All Lit Up” has a Springsteen –like melody and is describes a person who is ‘all lit up’ in multiple ways.  Fans of Ryan Adams will find this twangy slice of rock appealing just like they will with Sooner/Later, another slice of wordy country-rock. “Home” has a Charlie Robison-like story feel to it as Kasey Anderson sings about himself and how he burned bridges and kept saying he was leaving and telling stories of pity in a ‘town this small.’  It’s not the kind of song that’s likely to grab every listener but lyrical fans will certainly be moved by the introspectiveness of it.   “Torn Apart” quickly brings the pace of the song cycle back up to ‘tempo’ and ‘rockin’ as Anderson sings about a girl he met at his beloved (and closed) 3B tavern.  It also works as a metaphor for how she made him feel.

Channeling Mellencamp through a Ryan Bingham filter the title track finds Anderson singing about a lonely woman looking for a lonely man who ‘looks alright underneath the right light’ and later about his own burning of the bridges mentioned in earlier songs.  In fact, if one could argue anything about the album Nowhere Nights its that it tells a similar story on virtually every song. But hey, when it sounds as good this album does, it is ok to hear songs with similar themes, after all haven’t Mellencamp and ‘heartland rockers’ been singing basically the same song over and over for 40 years?  

“I Was A Photograph” is a song about the real-life harshness of the cost soldiers pay when they go to fight overseas and that “it don’t mean nothin’ to the tv trucks/til it’s real American boys psittin’ up real, American blood." It brings up PTSD in a way that makes everyone able to understand that the costs of war are more than just the young men and women lost 'over there' but the gentile souls who ask 'why me' like "Captain Dan" did in Forest Gump.   It’s without a doubt the strongest song on the album and one of the best of the year.  It rivals Brendan James' "Hero's Song" in this writer's mind. 

Fans of strong singer/songwriter heartland rock (country-rock) who enjoy any of the artists mentioned above or even Texans like Ryan Bingham should definitely check Nowhere Nights out, if for nothing other than to hear “I Was A Photograph” and Anderson’s strong whiskey and smoke-affected vocals.

Key Tracks: "I Was A Photograph,"  "Bellingham Blues," "Home" and "Real Gone."

You can support Kasey Anderson by purchasing this album at Amazon | iTunes.