Classic Episode: Nicole Atkins

January 16, 2026·59 min·5 clips

Why Nicole Atkins left New York for a Charlotte warehouse with rats and a sharpie-drawn welcome mattress.

The opening takes its time. Before Nicole Atkins joins in, the host tends to the Vault, mentions past episodes, and gets in a joke about avoiding writing. Then Jersey starts to sharpen. Nicole remembers going into Manhattan, sleeping where she could, and getting moved along by a 7 a.m. knock. East Sixth Street comes up. So does the odd thrill of seeing someone who looked like Tom Waits passing through that world. Asbury Park gets a less polished treatment. Nicole talks about a town that had emptied out, with the Stone Pony as the one place kids could still get to. Sunday hardcore shows mattered. In the space around that, friends bought or leased buildings, opened art galleries, and pulled young people into a loose summer scene. The memories stay local: bands playing, dice games in the back, a place getting a name before it got bigger. Nicole carries most of it. The host listens, nudges, and lets the story take its turns. There is a funny Sean bit, too. Nicole remembers finding out Langhorne was only eighteen after his mother called to check on him. That says a lot. The romance of a music scene sits right beside parents, couch-crashing, and mild confusion. After the sponsor note and Good Night, Rhonda Lee, the ending lands where this show usually does: the song is the thing.

As heard by us

A lived-in songwriter conversation where place, memory, and scene-building keep shaping the music talk.

Nicole Atkins turns the conversation into a lived-in look at New York spillover and Asbury Park memory. Joe Pug gives her space to talk through sleeping in a car on East Sixth, seeing Langhorne Slim dressed like an old man and compared to Tom Waits, and watching Asbury Park…

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Why you'd press play

Nicole Atkins turns Asbury Park lore and Manhattan crash-pad memories into a songwriting conversation.

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