Willie Nile
Hailing from Buffalo, New York, Willie Nile is the alter ego of Robert Noonan. Nile/Noonan was a dynamic factor in the New York coffeehouse scene way back before CBGB ever heard of rock music. But his was a promising career scarred by stalls, declines, illness, business problems, and bad luck. Just one example: Nile’s second album Golden Down came out in 1981. He was not heard from again for nearly a decade because of record industry troubles that temporarily shelved his career. When Nile finally made an attempt at a comeback, it was in Norway. After that, he released Places I Have Never Been, but it would be seven more career-killing years before another Willie Nile album saw the light of day.
Sure, call it folk music, Nile’s stuff, but it’s big and loud and electric, of a kind that gave Seeger the bad shakes. You always get a sense that something cosmic powers Nile’s music, that there’s a mojo in the man’s stage presence. These are noble days for Willie Nile, finally. He might just make it after all.