“I’m sittin’ here leanin’ on the rain.” – Derik Hultquist
Derik Hultquist at The Listening Room, photo – Brad Hardisty
Derik Hultquist lit up a full house at The Listening Room last Monday night on a bill simply titled Derik Hultquist and His Best Friends showcasing, for the most part, his latest Leaning On The Rain on Carnival Recording Company which has a southern feel but fits more as a poetic mid-range tenor similar to Ryan Bingham but not quite as ragged tenor than straight up country with tunes that fit more with Zac Brown’s Southern Ground crowd. I mean that in the most positive way.
Derik Hultquist at The Listening Room, photo – Brad Hardisty
Derik is a staff writer for Carnival Music and he is more of a poet than a lyricist with lyrics that run like “Riders in The Storm” with a lonesome Appalachian alternative country feel closer to the playbooks of Jim Morrison, Patti Smith, Nick Drake or Stevie Nicks than “Red Solo Cup” or riding around on your tractor material.
Derik Hultquist and His Best Friends at The Listening Room, photo – Brad Hardisty
The band is all about mood and setting a scene, Derik’s sound is more about cinematic pictures running through a field of hay at night.
Derik Hultquist at The Listening Room, photo – Brad Hardisty
Since coming out of Eastern Tennessee in 2007, Derik has been honing his craft in East Nashville developing a cutting edge take on rural back roads without sounding like anybody else winning converts one gig at a time.
Derik Hultquist at The Listening Room, photo – Brad Hardisty
Highlights were “Two Lovers,” “Leaning On The Rain,” “Three White Diamonds” as well as “Wolves.”
Derik Hultquist at The Listening Room, photo – Brad Hardisty
T-Bone Burnett should be all over this stuff with his forward looking material he has hand-picked for the Nashville TV show production. As far as southern flavored music, this is just six degrees away from becoming the Country music of the future.
– Brad Hardisty, Nashville, TN thenashvillebridge@hotmail.com
The Nashville Bridge 