Some excellent friends of mine and I, temporarily christened Sean Nelson & The Coastal Elite, made this recording to say Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence to the late, great Mr. Bowie, and to the now-staggering array of great artists and friends who died this year.

"Dead Man Walking" has been one of my favorite post-golden years Bowie numbers since I first heard the drum and bass arrangement on Earthling in 1997 and I've never understood how is has escaped being discovered as one of several lost classics in his repertoire.

The band is Eric Howk (Portugal the Man/Shelby Earl) and Lance Umble (Sloucher / bod/ Cumulus)on guitars, Jacob James (Ships, MANY others)on bass & harmonies, and Michael Lerner (Telekinesis) on drums. Can't ask for better. Michael also recorded and mixed it. (When we performed this arrangement earlier this year, Nouela O. Johnston of Bardot played keyboards and sang, so she's in the band, too, if she'll have us.)

Dead Man Walking

Written by the late, great Grant Hart, this has always been one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite bands, Husker Du. I am not a partisan about Hart vs. Mould. I love them both a lot, but Grant's songs had a slight edge in the vulnerability department. I'm sorry he's gone. This is a very simple piano + vocal version I sometimes do when I play solo shows.

Bedroom Adjacent (solo piano covers)

Sorry Somehow

Orchestral arrangements of songs by the late, great American singer/songwriter Harry Nilsson, sung by Sean Nelson.

CREDITS: 
Engineered by Mark Nichols 
Additional Engineering by Steve Fisk
Mixed by Steve Fisk
Produced by Mark Nichols and Steve Fisk
Directed by Sean Nelson

THE PLAYERS: 
Sean Nelson: Lead and Harmony Vocals
Steve Newton: Bass
John Hollis Fleishman: Drums
Mark Nichols: Piano, Baritone Sax, Organ, Moog
Aaron Taylor: Electric Guitar
Thomas Hunter: Electric Guitar, Bass
Aidan Fay: Acoustic Guitar, Pump Organ
Julie Lewis: Backing Vocals
Mari Finch: Backing Vocals
Katy Webber: Backing Vocals
Pajama Party: Backing Vocals
Larry Golding: Violin
Jakob Breitbach: Violin
Stephen Daniels: Violin
John Osebold: Violin
Ken Wright: Violin
Evan Mosher: Trumpet
Rob Witmer: Clarinet, Saxophone, Accordion
Kevin Hinshaw: Saxophone
Sari Breznau: Trumpet
Eric Padget: Trumpet
Adrian Witherspoon: Trombone
Salamandir: Tuba
Rob Knop: Piano

Cover design by Evan Sult, from elements of the 1865 satirical novel The Loyal Man in the Moon, author/artist unknown.

Thank You:
Chandra Farnsworth, Kurt Deutsch, Johnny Sangster, Flanagan and everyone at Largo (onstage and off-), Jon Brion, John Osebold, Evan Mosher, Basil Harris, Kirk Anderson, John Ackermann, David Nixon, Rob Witmer, Kathryn Rathke, Rob Knop, Gavin Guss, Robyn Hitchcock, Emma Swift, Scott McCaughey, Peter Buck, Bill Rieflin, David Depper, Joan LeMay, Lewi Longmire, Jacob Hoffman, Kyle O’Quin, Aaron Benson, Thomas Hunter, the artists formerly known as Kay Kay and His Weathered Undergound, Erin Jorgensen, Brittain Ashford, Shane Tutmarc, Tanya Montana Coe, all the amazing Seattle musicians who played on the record and at the handful of live shows over the years, and everyone who professed an interest in hearing these recordings during the many periods when I felt like this whole project was the wrong kind of folly. 

Special Thanks: 

Mark Nichols, for your superb talent and legendary patience. Thank you for translating a kooky premise into truly inspired music. 

Steve Fisk, for throwing a lasso around a ton of unruly elements and pulling until it sounded right, as you always do.  

Shenandoah Davis, for six years of insisting this record was worth finishing and that only a fool would give up on it. 

Aaron Huffman, for all of it.

Nelson Sings Nilsson 2018 MASTERS

Maybe (MASTER)

Think About Your Troubles (MASTER)

Together (MASTER)

Daddy's Song (MASTER)

Gotta Get Up (MASTER)

Debut solo LP from former Harvey Danger singer Sean Nelson, released by Jeff Rosenstock's Really Records. Features collaborations with Peter Buck, Chris Walla, and members of Centro-Matic.

Make Good Choices (Final Master 2013)

Kicking Me Out Of The Band

Hey, Millicent

Stupid And 25 (The Incredibly Sad Shuffle)

The Price of Doing Business

I'll Be The One

More Good News From The Front

Make Good Choices

The World Owes Me a Living (And I Intend to Collect) w/intro

This is a lot of the stuff I did while I was trying to decide whether or not I wanted to do anything else ever again. Some covers, a number of actual studio recordings, and a fair bit of scritchy-scratch. Of interest to very few, but I find myself drawn to it now and again, so one never knows. Features an incredible array of talented players, engineers, and associates, incl. Chris Walla, Matt Pence, Scott Danbom, Robyn Hitchcock, Scott McCaughey, Steve Fisk, John Goodmanson, Heather Duby, and many, many more.

Live at the Round

Exile on Baker Street (live)

Not Good Choices (demos/outtakes)

Carlotta Valdes (country)

Lost Album roughs 2004

The Beat Goes On 2006

Powers of Suggestion

Exile on Baker Street

Old Boy

This Wheel's On Fire

What You Live By

Here's To The Contentious Bastard

With one exception, these were all recorded in the apartment I inherited from Aaron and Mindy Huffman at 15th & Denny on Capitol Hill in Seattle between 2007 and 2011, when I moved out, which also constituted a period of intense misery and relentless writer's block. 

As many charlatans before me have done, I took up the time-honored rationalization that "learning" some of my favorite (morbid downer) songs would somehow impart the secret code that would allow me to start writing again. The culprits, unsurprisingly, included Pavement, John Prine, Blur, Leonard Cohen, Elvis Costello (x3), Big Star (Andy Hummel), Sebadoh, Randy Newman, Husker Du (Grant Hart), the Connells, and Stephin Merritt.

 I recorded them with the Voice Memo tool on my stupid iPhone, the lo-fi for people too lazy to find the power source to the cassette 4-track machine they never properly learned to use in the old days.

The gambit almost sort of worked once or twice. But what it mainly revealed were the limits of the autodidactic minimalism of my piano technique and, but, also, the sonority of my cheap 3/4-scale upright piano (the kind you find in a secondhand store) and the sweet acoustic of the little bedroom adjacent media closet. Also, thin walls demanded that I keep my voice down. Also, I did change that one chord in the John Prine song, just to see what would happen, and nothing did, so I reckon it's ok.

I'm not sure these merit "release" (or, indeed, that this qualifies as one), but believe it or not, these are the best of this little series. I find myself coming back to them quite a bit, the same way I always, always want to hear the demos on re-released versions of my favorite albums.

Actual Sean Nelson

Pinned to spotlight

Popular tracks