F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic work The Great Gatsbycame to represent the Roaring Twenties, an era of decadence and spiritual vacuousness, using the color green to represent longing and hope for the future. A century later but once again in the ’20s, Nick Waterhouse takes the color blue as his hue of choice as he takes a spiritual look to the past on new album Promenade Blue due out April 9 on Innovative Leisure.
 
The new collection sparkles beatifically, reverberating with energy, heart, creativity, and vibe from start to finish. Nowhere is this more evident than on the album’s opening track, “Place Names,” bringing teenaged memories to the forefront, pondering the pride he takes in his hometown and the distinct life that he has made (or that has made him). A soulful, sweeping arrangement punctuated with Girl Group backing vocals, “Place Names” which would find itself at home in a vibrant New Orlean’s club or alongside contemporaries Marlon Williams and The Budos Band.

“‘Place Names’ is the song I have been writing my entire life,” says Waterhouse. “I wanted to figure out a way to astrally project the listener into all the places and pathways – metropolitan or naturalistic – I could. Look up at the light of a big sky against a hillside city dotted with lights, the sea rising before you, the street unfolding as you climb up from the subway stairs, all in some dreamy place filled with promise and wisdom it can deliver to you. Then remember everyone who ever brought beauty into your own life. “
 
In Nick’s musical and lyrical world, blue is a refraction of his life and memories — shadowing a deep, spiritual San Francisco that fostered his musical vocabulary but has now been stamped out irrevocably; evoking the endless tours, marathon recording sessions, and highs and lows of success he’s experienced in his decade-long career; conjuring romances that were doomed, loves that lingered, and hope for future days of parity and partnership; summoning spirits of people who have gone but permeate his mind forever.