LOCAL SUPPORT: Singer-songwriter Aaron Nathans @ Milkboy Coffee, 7/15

Local singer-songwriter Aaron Nathans releases his latest EP with a "truly acoustic" performance at MIlkboy Coffee tomorrow.

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LOCAL SUPPORT: Singer-songwriter Aaron Nathans @ Milkboy Coffee, 7/15

POSTED: Thursday, July 14, 2011, 3:00 PM

Aaron Nathans’ latest EP may be about mortality, but that doesn’t mean it lacks a sense of humor. Nathans, who will celebrate the release of Alchemy of Memory at Bryn Mawr’s Milkboy Coffee tomorrow, writes acoustic tunes that blend clever lyrics with folk-pop melodies that often belie the songs’ more serious themes. The new, self-released record — “a do-it-yourself from start to finish,” Nathans says — touches repeatedly on the topic of memory. Deceptively lighthearted premises serve as jumping-off points for addressing more weighty themes.

“My four-year-old daughter,” for example, “loves” the album’s leadoff track, the singer-songwriter tells me. But the song, in which the narrator is “reincarnated as his own granddaughter,” is at its heart about lost things, Nathans says. Another track, “Everything You See Is Who I Am,” is on its surface an amusing number about messiness — but the messes we make are rife with distinct memories. “Green Song,” meanwhile, addresses the collective memory that goes into songwriting. “Everybody has their influences,” Nathans says, so really there’s “no such thing as a new song.”

Nathans was this year one of 32 musicians chosen out of 800 entrants to play in the Kerrville Folk Festival’s New Folk competition. With his performance, he followed in the footsteps of Lyle Lovett, Steve Earle, and Lucinda Williams, all of whose careers were spurred by the competition. The CD release party, however, will see him in a much more intimate setting: the Bryn Mawr Milkboy is a small coffee shop with a stage but no sound system. The show will thus be truly acoustic.

Nathans is joined on the bill by the Ronstadt Generations, a southwestern family band featuring an array of instruments (and yes, they’re closely related to Linda). Members will also back Nathans’ voice and guitar on a few tunes.

Friday, July 15, 7:30 p.m., $10 suggested donation, with Ronstadt Generations, Milkboy Coffee, 824 W. Lancaster Ave, Bryn Mawr, 610-527-0690, aaronnathans.com.

(matt.cantor@citypaper.net)

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