30 minutes outside Austin, on what had to be the coldest day in Texas history, Nathaniel Rateliff and a gang of 10-20 friends huddled around the kitchen stove like a campfire, waiting for the kettle to bubble and scream. Nathaniel looked tired. Not sleepy, but tired the way a truck driver looks after ten years and too many wide-eyed miles behind the wheel.

In the backyard, consistent wind shook the trees like little fists and the frost-tipped grass crunched when stepped back into the soil. It was cold but beautiful so I pleaded with Nate to leave the cozy warmth of indoors.

Seconds after agreeing to sing outside, Nate split back to the kitchen for a beer mug full of scalding hot tea and cheap whiskey.

A couple of mugs and hugs from loved ones later and he was out back, guitar in hand, sand-witched between band-mates, cracking jokes, belly laughing at the circumstances, singing against the wind and strumming with frozen fingers to the tune of ‘Boil & Fight.”