used on many classic records, was
being stored at Hobo Sound in
Weehawken. “It was almost as if
the stars were aligned for doing
this record now,” said Nile who
had not played that piano since
1980 when he was a budding
young rocker from Buffalo. The
stars might actually have been
aligned for Nile because the piano
is no longer being stored there.
Nile’s first two albums, Willie Nile
and Golden Down, were released
in 1980-81 on Arista Records and
should have been the start of a
great career, but legal disputes
with the label led him to walk
New Jersey Stage
away from the music business. He
didn’t put out another album until
1991 when Places I Have Never
Been came out on Columbia Records. A few years later, Nile
decided to go the independent
route and has been putting out records on his own label ever since,
most notably in the past decade in
which he has released five studio
records and three live discs.
One constant throughout all of
his records is an honest spirituality that many artists are hesitant
to show in their work. His songs
often have the same intense soul
searching spirituality found on
November 2014
pg 10