City and Colour’s Dallas Green gave the Denver roots n’ soul singer the shirt off his back
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Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats: South of Here Tour
When: Feb. 13, 6:30 p.m.
Where: Rogers Arena
The South of Here tour is Denver-based group Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats’ first headlining arena tour. It launches in Vancouver on Feb. 13 at Rogers Arena.
As he readies his wardrobe for the tour, Rateliff recalls that the last time he was in town opening for City & Colour, he shed a layer of his vintage denim “Canadian tuxedo” to Dallas Green.
“I had brought along a really cool vintage Lee or Levi’s blazer on the tour and it didn’t quite fit, so I offered it to Dallas if he wanted it,” he said. “He tried it on and it fit just right. Later I saw that he wore it to the big Gordon Lightfoot tribute which was pretty cool.
“Next time we met was in Victoria for a fundraiser some hockey players put together and he had this great Gucci shirt I was loving and wound up giving me the shirt right off of his back. That’s just the kind of nice guy he is.”
Rateliff, 46, is the kind of super-talented, nice guy that the music industry has a tendency to often overlook.
South of Here is the fourth full-length from the singer and his seven-piece backing band. Riding on the No. 1 Billboard Adult Alternative chart singles Heartless and Call Me (Whatever You Like), the group’s 7th and 8th No. 1 singles, it’s another hit record for the Americana act. But many fans don’t know that four solo albums, a live record and a pair of EPs preceded 2021’s breakout self-titled Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats debut.
In some ways, this band was a make it or break it effort for remaining in the U.S.
“This year marks a decade since the first Night Sweats release with another 20 years of work before that with other bands in other genres,” said Rateliff. “Bassist Joseph Pope II and I have known each other since we were kids in Missouri and had some regional success. But my solo work had done well enough in the U.K. and the Netherlands that I was planning on moving there before forming Night Sweats for one more try.”
Combining the singer’s blasting vocals with country, folk and R&B instrumentation, songs such as the band’s breakout singalong hit S.O.B., Hey Mama and Heartless hearken back to the southern soul sounds popularized by the legendary Stax Records label. It comes as no surprise that the label is home to the Night Sweats.
“The original idea of the Night Sweats was a combination of Stax legends Sam and Dave fronting The Band,” he said. “I was originally signed to Rounder when I was a solo act and was dropped when Concord bought the label, but then Concord came back and offered to sign me again for something solo or the new Night Sweats project. I noticed that Concord also owned Stax and asked if we could be on the label. And that was the beginning of this journey.”
With the Americana and alt-folk and country genres blowing up globally, Rateliff and the Night Sweats are well-positioned to ride the wave. Noting that they benefited from such supporters as City and Colour and others to get where they are today, the band is bringing along like-minded fellow artists from Iron & Wine, Waxahatchee and the Teskey Brothers on tour in the warm-up spots.
Vancouver’s opening act will be Texas outlaw country crooner Charley Crockett, another artist whose recent success is built on a long-running indie career. Crockett’s latest album $10 Cowboy Chapter II: Visions of Dallas follows on his acclaimed 2024 album $10 Cowboy.
“Charley’s and my paths keep crossing and we did at least one Outlaw tour with Willie and Family and it’s been great to watch his career grow,” said Rateliff. “He’s a hell of a performer and just got nominated for a Grammy. Happy to get him in front of some more folks, for sure.”
With his proven track record for delivering audiences what they want to hear, Rateliff has been appointed the first ever Newport Folk Steward for a three-year term advising and advocating for artists at the legendary Newport Folk Festival. He is the first solo artist to hold the role since Peter Seeger.
The times changing as they are, he relishes his new role at an event that spearheaded art around worker’s rights, the antiwar movement and more.
“I’m helping curate the festival which, in my opinion, I feel is the best one around,” he said. “Every time I go, I come away feeling a greater connection to my community and my peers. In preparation for our new president, I see it as a place for people to have a voice and safe place which is how it began and being able to advocate and advise young artists and more is a blessing.”
The Canadian tour will finish in Ottawa on March 22.
Additional Canadian tour dates
When: March 11
Where: Rogers Place, Edmonton
When: March 13
Where: Scotiabank Saddledome, Calgary
When: March 15
Where: Canada Life Centre, Winnipeg
When: March 21
Where: Scotiabank Arena, Toronto
When: March 22
Where: Canadian Tire Centre, Ottawa