Not Familiar with Willie Nile? It’s Your Own Fault

As I watched Willie Nile in a recent performance at the Tabernacle stage in Morris Plains, New Jersey, I wondered to myself: “Why didn’t this guy become huge? He’s got the whole package, and always has!” Although he blew the roof off the place that night, (with just an acoustic guitar and his 74-year-old voice) I couldn’t help thinking that a lot of people have missed the Willie Nile songbook. What happened? Or maybe more thoughtfully, what didn’t happen for Willie Nile?

Steven Van Zandt: “Willie Nile is so good, I can’t believe he’s not from New Jersey.”  

Robert Noonan was born and raised in Buffalo, New York, a child of a musical family whose heritage stemmed from his vaudeville pianist grandfather who ran a Buffalo-based orchestra. Willie has said that he desired nothing other than music since he was a teenager. In the 70s, he changed his name and moved to New York City. He played every dive and beer joint he could find. His sound and approach integrated nicely with the folky crowd at Kenney’s Castaways in Greenwich Village while simultaneously being embraced by the newly rising punks down at CBGBs.  This was not an easy mix to achieve and is a testimonial to Willie’s musical dexterity.

That mix at times could be a noose around Nile’s career. He’s lyrically insightful like Dylan, a dramatic troubadour like Springsteen, and a leather-bound punk poet like Joe Strummer. The recording industry’s decision-makers didn’t know where to file him.  Willie Nile’s music was a bit too smart for them.

Soon, Arista Records found a place, and in 1980 Wille put together his first album. It didn’t go unnoticed by the critics. Along with London Calling by The Clash, his debut album was voted “Record of the Year” by Stereo Review magazine. But unlike The Clash, the public didn’t buy it in droves. The album did gain him a lot of notice within the music industry. Pete Townshend was an instant fan and Nile was soon asked to be the supporting act for one of the huge final tours for The Who. Going from clubs to arenas in nearly a fortnight, the average person would think the visibility would compute to a large increase in his fan following. Unfortunately, he couldn’t capitalize on the experience.

Willie picks up the story: “Then as soon as the tour ended, the label called me in to discuss my next album. Well, they wanted one thing – and I wanted something else.” He reflected in a 2010 interview, “Other labels were interested in me, but it just got so complicated and stopped being fun because there were so many wolves trying to attach themselves; so, I packed the bags and moved to Buffalo and raised a family.” It would be another 10 years before he would step inside a recording studio to share new tracks with the world. “I never stopped writing songs in those years but when the legal stuff was finally settled the music scene had changed and the labels that had been fighting over me weren’t interested anymore!”

Lucinda Williams: “If life were true to form, I would be opening for Willie, not him for me!”

In 1991, Nile finally released the long-waited album Places I Have Never Been with several friends there to help out (Richard Thompson, Loudon Wainwright, friends from the Roaches and Hooters, and Roger McGuinn). The results were a collection that would become his trademark song infrastructure: sincerity, energy, and observant insights into a positive world.

This also started a pattern for Nile for the rest of his career: whenever he knocked on the rock & roll door, there were friends and colleagues to support him. Yet his time away from the scene caused his career momentum to suffer. Now that he was well on his way to a comeback, he hit the road, playing all over the world, joining the top talents in music. He’s reflected in past interviews, “I’m a pretty optimistic guy and believe that people are generally good, but the way my friends rallied around was very humbling. Life is hard enough; I always try to do something fun and uplifting. That seems to attract people to be part of it.”

Perhaps his most famous one-night teaming came after he established himself as a supporter of the Light of Day charity (for Parkinson’s Research). In 2012, he was joined by Bruce Springsteen to play Nile’s “One Guitar.” It brought the house down.

A few years later, Nile reflected on that night with the audience of the Big Joe Henry Variety Show, “Bruce is great, every year. Very, very supportive of Light Of Day and has raised millions over many years for the research. My mother was right when she said it’s better to give than receive. So, you throw a stone in the water, and you never know where the ripples will go, but they always go in the right direction.”  In 2019, he would join the E Street Band to perform Jackie Wilson’s “Higher and Higher.”

2006 saw the release of Nile’s 5^th album, Streets of New York. Considered by most critics as Nile’s best album, Time magazine wrote: “The tunes he writes and plays with such blowtorch vibrancy get the myth and danger and sadness and love in this town (New York), truer, and righter, than anything heard since Dion. This record is a head-twister and heart-wrencher. It’s rock and roll at its best!”

Bono on Nile’s 2013 album American Ride:  “There are a few Americas here to discover: the mystic, the magic, and the very real. (Willie Nile is) one of the great guides to unraveling the mystery that is the troubled beauty of America.”

Meanwhile back to the Tabernacle stage that evening in May 2023, Willie shares with the audience his experience writing a pair of tunes for film director Martin Scorsese. “He didn’t take them for the film that he was working on, but at least I now call him Marty!” Nile announces with a laugh. He seemed like a man who had no reverence for its potential impact on his career….

And that’s the point! It was another journeyman task for the 74-year-old musician. After 14 well-received albums and tours, and recording with Steve Earle, Fred Smith, T-Bone Wolk, Robbie McIntosh, and Andy York, he doesn’t have much more to prove short of a top 40 record or album. That may still come.

As Johnny Cash once sang, “I’ve been everywhere, man!” This could be Willie Nile’s theme song. If you’re not familiar with Nile’s music, you’ve only got yourself to blame. He’s been there, done his part, and more.

-Steven Valvano

Photo: Willie Nile, May 2023 (courtesy of the author)

PS — While we’re on the topic of Rock History, you might enjoy our YouTube series of daily one-minute nuggets of memorable moments…