Nick Wade: “Feeling Good Is Good Enough” (2023) CD Review

Feeling good is good enough, and the blues often have the power to make us feel good, to remove the power our troubles seem to have over us. The blues can declaw those troubles, tame them, put them into perspective, show them to be smaller than we first imagined. And Nick Wade knows just how to do that, as he demonstrates on his new album Feeling Good Is Good Enough. This is a solo album, with Nick Wade singing and playing guitar, joined only by one other musician on one track. In addition, he wrote all the songs on this disc. The songs were performed live in the studio and also outdoors.

Nick Wade opens the album with “Sky Line Drive,” which, though it’s an original composition, has a classic blues sound and feel. His approach is clearly influenced by some of the great blues players, and he is at home among them. “Woke up the next morning/Blues was all around my bed/I’m going back down to Virginia/Only thing that will make me glad.” This track features some delicious guitar work, That’s followed by “Sing With The Angels.” I love the sound of this track, the rawness, the passion. It’s a gospel blues song that looks forward to death. Again, if you’d told me this song was written a hundred years ago, I would have believed you. Nick Wade is carrying on a great tradition of songwriting and performing here. “I want to go to heaven when I die/I want to go to heaven and be with my dear mother.”

On “Broke And Busted” he touches on one of those perennial blues themes, singing “Said I’m broke and I’m busted, I ain’t got no place to go.” I think a lot of us in Los Angeles are going to be there soon if these strikes aren’t resolved. And then he’s surprised when a friend doesn’t treat him well. And like the previous song, in this one he sings of a mother who’s gone: “I said I’ve been mistreated ever since my mother’s been dead.” Then at the beginning of “Ease On Down The Road” he sings, “Time to leave here, time to ease on down that road.” Why is it that leaving always sounds so appealing? Even if the circumstances are poor, which they most likely are in a blues song, it sounds appealing. It sounds like the right move, like leaving means moving in the right direction. “That’s why I’m so sad and blue/And if I don’t talk to you soon, baby, I just, I just don’t know what I’m going to do.” That second “I just” adds to the line’s sense of uncertainty and need.

On “Lonesome Copperhead Snake,” Nick Wade is joined by Li’l Ronnie Owens on harmonica. This is the only track to feature a guest musician, and Ronnie Owens delivers some delicious work. “I’m a lonesome copperhead snake/And I make my home down in the ground/Later on in the evening, you know that’s when I come out and I crawl around.” I totally buy it, the way he delivers those lines. He’s a snake who travels “from city to city/Little girl, you know I’m just trying to get satisfied.” I love this song, even though at one point he sings “2 a.m. in the morning,” which of course is redundant. That’s followed by “Ragamuffin,” a short, fun, playful instrumental tune. “When You Bury My Body” is another blues song addressing death. Nick Wade sings, “When you bury my body, I do not want for you to moan.” Death seems to be lurking nearby, doesn’t it? And the blues seem capable of both welcoming it and pushing it back, for the blues will meet death on their own terms. That’s the feeling I get, anyway.

Some cool guitar work begins “The Broken Hearted Man.”  “I would have drove all night, mama, just to get to you/But I’m sitting here with my heart broke down and blue.” As is the case with a lot of blues songs, certain lines are repeated, and here one of those repeated lines is “I would have drove all night, mama, just to get to you,” emphasizing what he would have done before revealing that he’s seated there and blue, not going anywhere. This song is another that deals with loss, and is another highlight of the disc. “I wish I knew the reason why you had to leave this world and die/Sometimes I wish I knew the reason why/Sometimes I wish I knew the reason why/Sometimes I wish that I knew the reason why/Every time I think about it, I just drop my head and cry.” But there is still a positive bent to the song, as he sings at the end, “Mama, I will see you again someday.” “Down The Way” also features some really good guitar work, as well as a great raw vocal performance.

“Engineer Blues” is another song about leaving, this time on a train that leaves just before dawn. And again leaving is something positive. “I’m going to ride in the sunshine now/I’m going away to stay.”  I love the way he delivers certain lines, like “I declare the birds will start singing and the sky will start turning blue,” adding a sort of a growl on the word “singing.” That’s followed by “Crucifixion,” a slow blues number told from the perspective of Jesus Christ, even addressing Judas early in the song. “Judas, I still love you/Judas, you know I still love you/But you have turned on me.” Oh yes, even Jesus gets the blues. “My father, please won’t you tell me, why have you forsaken me?” The album then concludes with another delightful short instrumental number, “Raggin’ My Blues Away.”

CD Track List

1. Sky Line Drive
2. Sing With The Angels
3. Broke And Busted
4. Ease On Down The Road
5. Lonesome Copperhead Snake
6. Ragamuffin
7. When You Bury My Body
8. The Broken Hearted Man
9. Down The Way
10. Engineer Blues
11. Crucifixion
12. Raggin’ My Blues Away

Feeling Good Is Good Enough is scheduled to be released on September 15, 2023.