Nick Shoulders, who plays Crowbar in Ybor City, Florida on March 10, 2024. Credit: Photo by Nick Futch
Like Lukas Nelson, Nick Shoulders is doing what he can to shine major lights on traditional country and outlaw music, veering said shine away from the Morgan Wallens and Jason Aldeans of the industry.

On his twangy latest album All Bad, Shoulders and The Okay Crawdad channel Hank Williams Sr. in his voice (he was born with a real, unexaggerated Southern accent), Michael Nesmith’s First National Band in certain pedal steel licks, and raw, one-man songwriting you just don’t see in country anymore.

Acoustic folk-quartet Holy Locust opens the 35-year-old’s second-ever Tampa gig, his first having been in the same room in 2021.

Tickets to see Nick Shoulders and The Okay Crawdad play Crowbar in Ybor City on Sunday, March 10 are still available and start at $20.

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This article appears in Feb 29 – Mar 6, 2024.

Read his 2016 intro letter and disclosures from 2022 and 2021. Ray Roa started freelancing for Creative Loafing Tampa in January 2011 and was hired as music editor in August 2016. He became Editor-In-Chief...