Nathaniel Rateliff And Mark Shusterman DJ Takeover
DJ Takeover
A huge thanks to Nathaniel Rateliff and Mark Shusterman of Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats for taking some time to join The Colorado Sound today.
Margot hosted them for a DJ Takeover in which they showcased a diverse set of soulful grooves and inspirational protest songs. A Spotify playlist of the songs played during the DJ Takeover is below.
Tearing At The Seams is out today on Stax, starting a very busy 2018 from here on. Up next, the band will be on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Monday before embarking on a massive tour that sees them coming to Red Rocks on August 22 and August 23. Nathaniel Rateliff will appear alongside John Prine November 10 at Buell Theatre.
Here are some highlights during their interview with Margot:
On Nina Simone’s “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free”
Nathaniel Rateliff: “It’s kind of been our conversation a lot recently about what we’re trying to do as a live band, not trying to use our platform in a political way, but really to try to bring people together. There’s a lot of people that don’t have a voice and I feel like there’s a lot of people that are alienated, and I don’t want to be a part of that. It’s strange that we are still struggling with the same issues that we did during the Civil Rights Movement.”
On How Ray Charles’ live version of “A Fool For You” Inspired the band
Nathaniel Rateliff: “This is what a live band is suppossed to sound like. How can we continue to push ourselves to be like this?”
Mark Shusterman: “Listening to this is like doing homework. We all would just put it on in the van, listen to it over and over again and take notes on it on how to put together a show because that man knew how to put together a show.”
On “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” by The Band
Nathaniel Rateliff: “I always related to it, growing up in Missouri. One of the guys in The Band sounds exactly like my father. It just made me think the hardships of his family, growing up poor, and the pressure you have in the South and the Midwest as well.”
Mark Shusterman: “I’ve always been moved by that song, just musically. And the lyrics are also beautiful.”
On Kevin Morby’s protest song “Beautiful Strangers”
Nathaniel Rateliff: “It’s a song we’re trying to do a cover of live. He brings up this thing about the shooting in Paris and he’s talking about how we don’t need guns to protect ourselves from these other people. What if we all care about each other enough we won’t need that anymore? And he talks about thinking of others and being their cover. It makes you wonder what you would do in that situation when someone storms into a school or an office building or a show and opens fire. What do you do? Do you actually become the hero and protect the people around you and sacrifice yourself, essentially? I would like to think that’s what I would do.”
Mark Shusterman: “If we all love each other consistently and throughout maybe we won’t be creating those type of people either.”
The interview ended on a humorous note, as the band discussed “The Rubberband Man” from The Spinners.
Nathaniel Rateliff: “I think I was having a hard time on tour and I listened to only that song repeatedly for a couple of days.”
Mark Shusterman: “Oh dude, I’ve done that… “Many Rivers To Cross”.
Nathaniel Rateliff: “I listened to that Ted Hawkins record (Cold And Bitter Tears) for a whole tour.”
