Artist Spotlight: nelo
November 11th, 2009 | Published in Artist Spotlight, Featured Stories, Scene & Heard
By Josh Storie
Austin-based pop/rock sextet, nelo, is no stranger to the College Station music scene. In the past couple years, the band’s acoustic-heavy rock stylings have had Aggies packing out venues like Schotzi’s. And they are coming back Tuesday, Novemeber 24th to rock the house once again.
Nelo, who derives their name from a strategy used in Spades, began playing together back in 2002 but didn’t officially form, according to songwriter/guitarist Matt Ragland, until they all packed up and moved to Georgia in 2005 to further develop their sound. The band left Texas for Athens, Georgia, leaving only a homemade demo behind.
While nelo was making a name for themselves in the Athens music scene with their signature jazzy acoustic singer/songwriter sound, they were also generating a buzz back in Austin. It didn’t take long before they were playing to full houses in both Texas and Georgia. Then one night, the band was playing a show at Momo’s in Austin where producer/studio owner and nephew to Willie Nelson, Freddy Fletcher happened to be in the audience.
“[Freddy Flethcher] came with his wife. His wife, Lisa Fletcher, had come to one of our shows before and she brought Freddy out and I guess Freddy was liking the band because we went back to Athens and Freddy and I started talking on the phone quite a bit and we ended up striking a record deal,” recalls Ragland.
Nelo’s debut album hit as high as the #21 spot on both the Billboard Magazine “New Artist Album” and Heatseekers charts. The album has sold 20,000 downloads and had critics such as Texas Music Magazine taking notice, saying nelo’s debut, “delivers arguably the catchiest batch of jam-friendly melodic pop since Blues Traveler’s Four.”
Last spring, the band began releasing singles from their new EP. They released one each month, starting with the March 17th release of “Love Solution”. Since then, “Story of our Lives,” “2 Years Ago,” and “Break Through” were all released digitally, giving loyal fans something to tide them over and converting fans in the process leading up to the release of Two Years Ago this past July. The EP has only been released digitally and is over 2,000 downloads.
Nelo will be performing at Schotzi’s on November 24th. For more information on the band and their music be sure and check out www.nelomusic.com.
