Nick Pivot calls his style "shop-floor country from Detroit."
His new solo CD, "A Guy, A Guitar & A Cheap Can of Beer" has been out for a month or so and it contains a song about Detroit that is funny, outrageous and, yes, shop-floor country.
The refrain goes, in part: "Fuck you, I'm from Detroit/Got a bunch of burned-out buildings and dead bodies to exploit..."
The song is "Fuck You, I'm From Detroit," and it catches your attention. And it's not just because of the F-bombs, numerous as they are.
The song has a little bite, a sense of humor and projects a weird sort of hometown pride. It probably won't replace Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" as the Motor City anthem played at every Tigers' game -- you know, the guy from "south Detroit?" -- but it has been on the juke box at Gusoline Alley in Royal Oak, and Pivot is scheduled to serenade shoppers at Royal Oak's Farmers Market, with Bernard Staples, Feb. 9, from 10 a.m. until noon.
Robert del Valle wrote in Real Detroit Weekly:
Nick Pivot first came to our attention as the least hirsute member of Skin & Bones, a country music combo with an affinity for traditional melodies and more contemporary songs about urban dislocation. However, it was a song done in the latter key ("F*** You! I'm From Detroit!") that really made our ears prick up when it was performed at The People's Arts Festival a year or so ago. We now have happy evidence that Pivot is still in business and still sounding good. It's a CD called A Guy, A Guitar & A Cheap Can of Beer. Our boy took a 24-ounce can of Miller High Life into Oak Park's Woodshed Studios and cut a great repertoire of original numbers and a couple of timeless covers. There are copies at Gusoline Alley, the CD itself is on the jukebox, and you can google Nick's name if you want multiple stocking stuffers for friends and family.
