<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7MaFldEj1o&amp;t=2s" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(99, 82, 243);">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7MaFldEj1o&amp;t=2s</a> Nate Fredrick is ready for a new chapter.&nbsp;&nbsp;To say the Nashville-based singer-songwriter has made a change or two since he released his debut album,&nbsp;Different Shade of Blue, back in 2021, is an understatement.&nbsp;&nbsp;“Someone will only follow you if you know where you’re going,” he says.&nbsp;“And so I went to rehab two times this year. And I recorded an EP, and I have a band. So it’s been two starkly different halves of the year.”&nbsp;&nbsp;“But I needed to do that—I didn’t know if I was necessarily going to work out like this. But I knew that the only way I was going to be able to keep playing music was to get sober. I knew that was the only way I could lead a band or even be a part of a band.”&nbsp;The band he’s referencing, Nate Fredrick &amp; The Wholesome Boys, also finds him in an uncharted-but-welcome territory: it’s the first real band he’s been in. The foursome—Fredrick on lead vocals, acoustic and electric guitars; Dylan Miller on drums and percussion; Frank Patrick James on vocals and electric guitar; and Andrew Foreman on bass—began playing together in the summer of 2022 and quickly found out that the whole thing felt a bit kismet—and different than anything the other members had experienced in previous bands. For one, everyone in the band is sober, and their ethos as a group is built around the idea of the band as a community, less about ego and more about a common goal. “I think what connects us is that we’re all using our ears,” Miller says. “We’re listening.”&nbsp;While Fredrick is still a writer on each of the EP’s six songs, which were recorded at Nashville’s Farmland Studios, as&nbsp;Different Shade of Blue&nbsp;was—sonically, there’s also been an evolution. “I play a Gibson 355,” Frederick notes, a departure from his usual acoustic. The guitar’s most famous devotees include B.B. King and Chuck Berry. ”It’s an electric versus an acoustic, so I get to play loud.”&nbsp;“I get to play loud, but I also get to play less, you know, because with my acoustic guitar, I tried to make the song sound closer to how they were in my head, melodically, without a band. So, I learned I have to do a lot more; now, I get to listen and don’t have to work quite so hard to get all this stuff out.”&nbsp;&nbsp;The result is a cohesive look at what it means to make music in your terms—less centered around tenets and tropes of what it is to be a musician and, instead, revolving around what it is to make music you’re proud of, that’s inarguably full of life and creative force—exploring what it means to follow a dream; to feel low and still find a way to pick yourself up; to put down vices, finally; and to find ways to be intoxicated by life, without any help.&nbsp;The Wholesome Boys:Drums – (DYLAN MILLER)Electric Guitar/ Vocals – (FRANK PATRICK JAMES)Bass – ( ANDREW FOREMAN)&nbsp;“Nate Fredrick’s Different Shade of Blue Reflects maturity”-Americana Highways-&nbsp;“The level of introspection is as reassuring as hearing some friendly advice”-American Songwriter-&nbsp;“Different Shade of Blue is first and foremost a country album, but its bluesy edges, steel guitar flourishes, and Van Morrison-style airiness make it unlike anything else in the genre at this moment in time. “-Raised Rowdy-&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="http://www.natefredrickmusic.com/" target="_blank">www.natefredrickmusic.com</a>