In each song she creates, Nicole Atkins reveals her incredible power to transport listeners to
a much more charmed time and space. On Italian Ice, the New Jersey-bred singer/songwriter
conjures the romance and danger and wild magic of a place especially close to her heart: the
Jersey Shore in all its scrappy beauty. Inspired by the boardwalk’s many curiosities—the
crumbling Victorian mansions, the legendary funhouse, the Asbury Park rock-and-roll scene
she played a key part in reviving—Atkins transforms her never-ending fascination into a
wonderland of her own making.
For help in capturing the shore’s kinetic spirit, Atkins assembled a studio band whose lineup
feels almost mythical. Recorded at the iconic Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in
Alabama, Italian Ice finds the Nashville-based artist joined by Spooner Oldham and David
Hood (both members of The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, who played on classic records
from the likes of Aretha Franklin and Etta James), Binky Griptite of The Dap Kings, Jim
Sclavunos and Dave Sherman of The Bad Seeds, and drummer McKenzie Smith (St.
Vincent, Midlake). With special guests including Spoon frontman Britt Daniel, Seth Avett
of The Avett Brothers, Erin Rae, and John Paul White, the album is a testament to Atkins’s
uncommon talent for uniting musicians of radically different sensibilities. As Atkins
explains, the abundance of collaborations on Italian Ice partly stems from a freak accident in
which she stumbled into a sinkhole in a Knoxville parking lot—an incident that left her
with a profound longing to fill her life with the people and experiences that bring her the
most joy.
Co-produced by Atkins and Ben Tanner of Alabama Shakes, Italian Ice makes brilliant use of
its A-list personnel, unfolding in a kaleidoscopic sound that Atkins likens to “an acid trip
through my record collection.” At turns as opulent as symphonic pop and gritty as garage
punk, the album wanders into shades of psych-rock and honky-tonk and girl-group
melodrama, endlessly spotlighting the tightly honed musicianship and unbridled originality
at heart of Atkins’s artistry.