Chillicothe - Funnel Cloud Town (2025)

Dysfunctional but beautiful songs which encapsulate small-town America. Nicholas Altobelli has been releasing albums since his early 20s, setting up his own record label in 2011. This is his first release using the name Chillicothe. Chillicothe is a small town located in North Texas, established in 1883, which currently has a population of around 550 people. Altobelli was born in California but lives in North Texas despite often saying that he doesn’t belong there and proclaiming a few years ago that “I have California DNA”, which makes the Texan heat hard for him to endure.

Altobelli has described Chillicothe as his “new country music project”, but it could probably be better described as a fine piece of Americana, played by some wonderful musicians including Kim Herriage (pedal steel, dobro, electric guitar); John Dufilho (drums); Salim Nourallah (bass); Rahim Quazi (piano); Becky Middleton (backing vocals); and Leoncarlo Canlas (violin). Together, the band provides a rich backdrop over which Altobelli sings his often heart-rending stories of the reality of the often over-romanticised, small-town America. You can imagine Altobelli and his talented friends sitting on the porch of a small Texan house playing these songs as the sun dips below the horizon and takes the edge off the heat.

‘Grocery Store Flowers’ showcases some achingly beautiful violin playing from Leoncarlo Canlas. It’s a poignant song about a mother whose son is dying of cancer, a tale of broken hearts and dreams, as her son, in the grip of the malignancy, forgets his parent’s name. Altobelli appears to have a fascination with the desolation and isolation of small American towns, ‘Texola’, being a case in point. It’s a small settlement in Oklahoma located on Route 66 where, standing in the middle of the town’s road, Altobelli sings, ‘I’ve never seen anybody in this town’, not surprising given that it’s only got a population of ‘thirty-eight seniors’.

‘What The Stars Have Made’ is a jaunty tune, again with fiddle and banjo playing to the fore, but it details the need to escape American suburbs where ‘we’ve got preachers spreading hate’ and the yearning to tell someone ‘I love you under judgeless skies’. ‘All My Favorite Singers’ epitomises the phrase “never meet your heroes”, well, certainly not Altobelli’s, as he thinks that ‘all my favourite singers are assholes’. Altobelli doesn’t drop any hints as to who the song might be about, but you don’t have to read too many interviews with him to make an educated guess. ‘I Don’t Know Where It’s Going’ captures just how Becky Middleton’s vocals superbly complement Altobelli’s throughout the record.

The album comes to a close with the title track ‘Funnel Cloud Town’, detailing the broken social contracts and the shattered American dream as the song’s protagonist spends his time driving the back roads smoking weed to escape the ‘rusted zip code’, which is all that he knows. Altobelli has said that this record “invites listeners to ride out life’s storms and find beauty in the wreckage”. That’s true. Amongst the pensiveness and sad narratives, there’s much beauty to be found on this album thanks to the calibre of Altobelli’s songwriting and the gifted group of musicians backing him.