As ‘Mother of All Storms’, the new single from Sydney singer-songwriter Jack Nolan, begins the scene is immediately set for the listener, with a strumming of mandolin strings and rippling guitar that tells us something is brewing. When Nolan starts singing, we’re pulled deeper into it: the swirl and menace that are on their way but also somehow already here.
‘I was walking along Bondi Beach, a humid summer’s day, I looked up and saw the commotion in the sky and said to myself, the mother of all storms is coming. I saved the line, of course,’ says Nolan of the song’s genesis. ‘I don’t think you’d find anybody that would disagree – the world is in a very delicate state in many different ways, and this song speaks to that.’
Listen to ‘Mother of All Storms’
The single, which is having its premiere here today, is the first from Nolan’s forthcoming album Songs for Hemingway, which will be released in October this year and on which Nolan worked with his longtime Nashville-based collaborator/multi-instrumentalist/producer Justin Weaver (The Chicks, Wynonna Judd). Nolan had only instruction for Weaver: that no electric instruments were to be used on the record, so all the power in ‘Mother of All Storms’ comes from acoustic instruments and how deftly they are deployed to create a rich foreboding.
Nolan has released six albums as a solo artist, including Jindabyne (2022) and Gabriel (2020). He also fronted The Kelly Gang, with Rick Grossman, bassist for The Divinyls and Hoodoo Gurus, along with Midnight Oil drummer Rob Hirst and guitar player Martin Rotsey. They released the album Looking for the Sun in 2024.
‘Mother of All Storms’ was something of a late addition to the songs destined for Songs for Hemingway: ‘What I love about the song, one of my favourites on the album, is that it was a freebie,’ says Nolan. ‘I’d been working very hard getting all the material together, and that came from nowhere and was written in 10 minutes on my kitchen bench. That’s what I’ve learned, those experiences and songs never come if you’re not doing the work!’
https://jacknolanmusic.bandcamp.com/track/mother-of-all-storms
https://jacknolanmusic.com
One response to “Single premiere: ‘Mother of All Storms’ by Jack Nolan”
[…] for Hemingway, which includes the single ‘Mother of All Storms’, which had its premiere on Sunburnt Country Music earlier this year. It’s a tour de force of a song and the album […]