Jeb Loy Nichols

“Just keep it simple,” says Jeb Loy Nichols. He’s talking about both his music and his life on a remote small holding in the Welsh hills. “If you keep it simple,” he says, “there’s less to go wrong. You take a little country, some soul, some old friends and a few good stories, and what can go wrong?”

Born in the American mid-west, Jeb Loy Nichols was raised on a diet of bluegrass and county music. At 17 he moved to New York where he fell in love with the emerging hip-hop scene. From there he went to London where he lived with Neneh Cherry, Ari Up (from the Slits) and Adrian Sherwood. 20 years ago he left London for the Welsh hills. He’s recorded 13 critically acclaimed solo records and, before that, 5 records with the band Fellow Travellers.

“Adrian Sherwood,” says Jeb Loy, “taught me everything I needed to know about the music business. He had three rules: don’t be a bastard, make music that means something, don’t worry about what anyone says. He was the first person I met that was my age making important music.”

Jeb Loy has spent the past 30 years making music, writing novels and exhibiting his artwork.

"Jeb Loy Nichols has ploughed his own unmistakeable furrow between art, music and the ups and downs of life. Consumately brilliant at every task he undertakes, he’s a light house, keeping the listener off the rocks and directing them to better place" Max Reinhardt (BBC Late Junction)
"The high priest of country cool" RollingStone
"This guy is good. Believe it. REALLY GOOD" Nashville Chronicle
"I like him very much. He’s very special. He’s singing with a voice I never heard before..." Townes Van Zandt
"Stands alongside Willie Nelson and Tony Joe White" Charlie Gillett
"You're doing now what we were doing back then" Spooner Oldham