Nicholas Jamerson has never seemed particularly interested in separating himself from the place that made him. On Rabbit Holes Vol. 1, that connection becomes the entire point. Recorded in his hometown of Prestonsburg, Kentucky, the seven-song EP pares Jamerson’s music down to acoustic guitar, banjo and voice, creating the feeling of hearing a songwriter perform close enough that every word matters. Released September 11 through Cloverdale Records, it is a short, unadorned collection, but there is considerable weight packed into its roughly twenty minutes. Rather than reaching for a bigger production, Jamerson goes in the opposite direction, trusting the songs to carry the record.
“Blow’d In the Creek” immediately establishes that approach, with Jamerson using the landscape around him as more than scenery. Throughout the EP, people and places are treated as things worth remembering before they disappear. “I’ve Never Been Anywhere” turns that idea inward, while “Goodbye Brother” is particularly affecting in its portrayal of addiction and the grief left behind by someone who could not escape it. The stripped-back arrangement makes the song more powerful rather than less, leaving Jamerson’s voice and the story exposed. “Hollerin’ and Wallerin’” and “Be Strong” continue the record’s examination of hardship and perseverance without turning either into grand declarations.
There is a natural intimacy to Rabbit Holes Vol. 1 that comes from Jamerson’s Appalachian musical foundation. These songs don’t sound like attempts to recreate some idealized version of mountain music; they sound like the work of someone who has lived inside that tradition long enough for it to become instinctive. “Fly,” co-written with Emily Irene Davis, adds another perspective without disrupting the EP’s homespun character, while the closing “How Great Thou Art” brings the collection to a quietly spiritual conclusion. The sequencing makes the seven songs feel less like isolated recordings than different paths into the same landscape—each one revealing another piece of the songwriter’s relationship with home, family, loss and memory.
What makes the EP especially effective is the contrast between Jamerson’s growing career and the deliberately modest scale of these recordings. He has already performed at venues including the Ryman Auditorium and Grand Ole Opry, and his career began with Sundy Best before expanding into a substantial solo catalog. Yet Rabbit Holes Vol. 1 sounds almost completely unconcerned with that trajectory. There is no sense of trying to prove how far he has come. Instead, Jamerson seems more interested in documenting what he might otherwise leave behind. That philosophy also connects to his work supporting Kentucky’s songwriting community through the Sleeping in the Woods Songwriter Festival.
Rabbit Holes Vol. 1 is ultimately a record about paying attention. Jamerson finds significance in ordinary people, familiar landscapes and difficult memories, then gives those things just enough music to make them linger. The EP’s simplicity isn’t a limitation; it is the method. By stripping away everything that isn’t necessary, Nicholas Jamerson makes room for the thing he has always done best: telling stories that make a particular place feel personal, and a personal story feel universal. – Jason Felton