Nathan Evans Fox -- Heirloom
With his latest album Heirloom, Nathan Evans Fox guides us through the warp and weft of life with anthemic sing-alongs and deeply personal lyrics.
Keep queer country community strong and dive into our 600/500 Challenge today!
What does it mean to bring a life into the world as you grieve one that has just been lost? With Heirloom, Nathan Evans Fox tackles the shape of our lives. A circle might be too simplistic; so is the linear beginning, middle, and end. Instead, Heirloom explores the warp and weft of joy, loss, and alienation that spirals through a life well-lived.
Fox's workman-like approach to songwriting will remind listeners of American Aquarium, Jason Isbell, and Adeem the Artist: all people who understand how to write a song with depth of feeling using plainspoken language and sing-along hooks. From the jump, Fox throws us into the deep end with "Lots of Beginnings," a meditation of all of the hopes Fox has his for his firstborn – and a frank understanding of all that is broken in the world that we are giving to her.
But that heirloom is earned with a fight: whether Fox is processing his individual struggles ("Thinking About Quitting No. 5"), the foibles of the life of an independent artist in 2026 ("Little Bit of Shine,") or existing in defiance of what Fox terms Confederate Politics ("Landlords, Bill Lee, etc."), there is an essential warmth in Fox's music. That's in part due to the anthemic lines that are destined for singing in solidarity at shows, but it's also Fox's essential grasp of humanity in all of its states. This is perhaps best illustrated in the final track "I Know the End," which ultimately cycles back to "Lots of Beginnings" – the inheritance we all end up with, after all, is witnessing the ebb and flow of creation.
Heirloom is also a rallying cry – just as life changes, so, too, can we create change in the world. What is it that we want to give to those who come after us – and what, if anything, can we afford to leave unfinished?
Check back at the end of the year, but I'm confident that Heirloom will be on my shortlist for 2026.
Nathan Evans Fox – Official, Bandcamp, Instagram, Threads, Spotify
