Nate Paladino - Good Boy EP (Self-Released)

Nate Paladino is a solo artist from Orange County. Releasing his new Good Boy EP, Paladino’s sound echoes the greats of 50’s and 60’s pop. Like an American Richard Hawley, Paladino projects himself as a rockabilly artist for the modern age, augmented by double basses, Roy Orbison choirs, and classic Rock ‘n’ Roll swagger. But there’s as much Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran to his sound as there is Nick Cave and Leonard Cohen, supplanting his love of 50’s music with an equal love for crooning poeticism.

The lyrics here also seem torn between the old and the new. There are beautiful precious moments of probity, singing merely of hand holding and going steady, but an urgency for the modern day’s innocence lost creeps in occasionally with song titles like “My Kind of Bitch.” It’s up for debate if the title is in bad taste, and it probably is, but it seems like the intent was more in good fun. Nevertheless, Paladino comes as close to sounding like the real, original thing as it’s possible today, which grows increasingly difficult. There are great moments of beauty here like the solo acoustic song, “Friend in Need,” and in just a brief six songs, Paladino shows he has a lot to offer.