Nic Elliott

Nic Elliott plays guitar, banjo and harmonica, and has no memory of a time without a guitar in his hands.

Elliott and Brad met sitting at a bar. Elliott mentioned he was a musician, sent over his links, and Brad listened to them and wanted him on, but there was nowhere to put him until the studio was finished. On St Patrick's Day he became the first in studio acoustic guest on the SALTYmf GOAT Podcast, playing two songs before the conversation started. It was the first podcast he had ever done, and he said the format of playing first and talking after was the right way round.

His father owned a studio before he was born and recorded all sorts of people there, Curtis Mayfield among them, and has always been a guitar player. Elliott was in lessons by ten and playing in a children's band with his buddies, doing Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana and Green Day, opening for the older guys. Country came much later. He took his dad to a Marcus King concert without having listened to Marcus King, and it turned his head around. Billy Strings pulled him into bluegrass after that, and from there to Bela Fleck and Marty Robbins. He is dismissive about the harmonica, which he says is a matter of having it in the right key and messing with it for a few days.

He is looking for a band. The closest thing he has is Lance Peace, his bass player from that children's band, who has since moved to Nashville. They went nine or ten years without playing together, then got in a room, Elliott picked up the banjo and Lance picked up the guitar, and he says it was like drinking water. They have been recording for a year and have released none of it yet. For Elliott the point of any of it is simpler than a release schedule. When something is going on, he says playing it is easier than talking about it, even to his mom.