Early beginnings in North Carolina and New York After high school, Atkins moved to
Charlotte, North Carolina to study illustration at the
University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She ingrained herself within the city's independent music scene, discovering bands like
Superchunk and
Uncle Tupelo. She also started writing original songs and befriending other local musicians. Among other bands, she joined a supergroup in the city called Nitehawk that, at one point, had almost 30 members. After she returned, she joined the band Los Parasols, releasing an EP with them entitled
The Summer of Love in 2002. That same year, Atkins moved to the neighborhood of
Bensonhurst in
Brooklyn,
New York. She returned to Charlotte and played with several bands, most notably a group called Virginia Reel. At this time, she started writing what she termed "a mix of Americana, 60s, and indie rock." She also recorded her EP
Bleeding Diamonds. Early 2003, she commuted into Manhattan by train to play gigs and maintain a connection to the city's underground music scene. In mid-2004, Atkins and David Muller, who had played drums with
Fischerspooner and
The Fiery Furnaces, started working on a demo CD entitled ''Party's Over''. They recorded most of the album in Atkins' parents' house using a
Casio keyboard, a
ProTools rig, and a mini recorder. Drum parts were recorded at Muller's apartment in Manhattan, with further tracks recorded at the Dietch Projects gallery in Brooklyn. In late 2006, Atkins and the Sea traveled to Sweden to record her debut album,
Neptune City, at Varispeed Studios in Kalgerup and Gula Studion in
Malmö with producer
Tore Johansson. The album was originally scheduled for a July 2007 release, but at the behest of Columbia co-chairman
Rick Rubin, it was pushed back until October 30, 2007, to accommodate
re-mastering the album. It debuted at number 20 on
Billboard's
Top Heatseekers chart and reached number 6 on the Heatseekers Middle Atlantic Chart. In 2008, Atkins' backing vocals were prominently featured on
A.C. Newman's second solo album,
Get Guilty, released in 2009.
2010–2011: The Black Sea and Mondo Amore In January 2010, Atkins and The Black Sea started recording new material at Brooklyn's Seaside Lounge studio with producer Phil Palazzolo, with whom Atkins had previously worked during sessions for
Get Guilty in 2008. Several other musicians joined Atkins in the studio to record the tracks for what would become her second album,
Mondo Amore, including guitarist Irina Yalkowsky, drummer Mike Graham, and bassist Jeremy Kay. Graham, Oklan, Yalkowsky and Kay would form the core lineup of The Black Sea with whom Atkins would tour in support of
Mondo Amore. In June 2010, Atkins signed with New York-based independent label Razor & Tie. The label released
Mondo Amore on February 8, 2011. The album received coverage from
The New York Times, and Rolling Stone. The release party was held at The Music Hall of Williamsburg and announced in The New Yorker. In the month following the release Nicole Atkins and the Black Sea performed at South By Southwest and were reviewed by Spin Magazine as "the best live band of the festival.".
2012–2014: Slow Phaser In the winter of 2012, Nicole returned to
Malmö, Sweden to record with
Tore Johansson on her latest record,
Slow Phaser. The album was released February 4, 2014, to rave reviews and a peak position of 143 on the Billboard 200. The album's first single, "Girl You Look Amazing" was premiered by
Paste and the video for the album's second single, "Who Killed the Moonlight?", was premiered by
NPR's First Watch. In February 2014, Nicole returned to Late Night with David Letterman to perform on his last season, a new rendition of her song "War Torn," off of her "Live from the Masonic Temple, Detroit" album, which was recorded while on tour as the opening act for
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.
2017–present: Goodnight Rhonda Lee and Italian Ice Goodnight Rhonda Lee is Nicole Atkins' fourth studio album, which was recorded at
Single Lock Records in
Florence, Alabama and was released on July 21, 2017.
Goodnight Rhonda Lee was produced and engineered by
Niles City Sound: production, engineering, drums, and percussion on all tracks by Josh Block; production, guitar on all tracks, and musical arrangements by Austin Jenkins; production and engineering by Chris Vivion. The first single off her record was "Goodnight Rhonda Lee" which is about her past behavior and finally putting it to rest. Her next single following "Goodnight Rhonda Lee" is "Listen Up." In "Listen Up" Atkins is very self-critical on how her life lessons were learned the hard way.
Goodnight Rhonda Lee received an 83/100 score and 4 out of 5 stars. Atkins released her fifth studio album,
Italian Ice, in 2020. It was recorded at
Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama, and featured several musicians associated with that studio. A review in
American Songwriter concluded, "Why Atkins didn’t achieve star status with
Goodbye Rhonda Lee isn’t clear. This flawlessly conceived follow-up draws from many of the same influences yet broadens her boundaries. It’s every bit as potent and expertly arranged, putting it in play as an early contender for one of 2020s finest albums." In 2021, she released
Memphis Ice, an acoustic version of
Italian Ice recorded in
Memphis. On September 9 of that year, she released a four-track
EP of
cover songs called ''Nicole Atkins Digs Other People's Songs'', which included the tracks: "
The Crystal Ship" (
The Doors), "
Dream a Little Dream of Me" (
The Mamas & the Papas), "
Under the Milky Way" (
The Church) and "
Inside of Love" (
Nada Surf). In 2009, Atkins' backing vocals were featured prominently on
AC Newman's second solo album,
Get Guilty. Atkins provide vocals for the track "Solano Avenue" (as Estrella Cumpas) on
David Byrne and
Fatboy Slim's 2010 album,
Here Lies Love. Atkins also joined the 9th annual Independent Music Awards judging panel to assist independent musicians' careers. Atkins recorded a cover of
Bruce Springsteen's "
Dancing in the Dark" in 2014 for a compilation album titled ''Dead Man's Town'', a tribute to Springsteen's
Born in the U.S.A. LP. In 2016 Cotton Mather released a three-song EP on Star Apple Kingdom titled Cotton Mather with Nicole Atkins, featuring the songs "Girl Friday," "Faded," and "Call Me The Witch." Nicole Atkins produced and co-wrote "Too Late" and "Saturday" for Tommy Stinson's Bash & Pop which were released by Fat Possum Records. Nicole Atkins co-wrote "Those Were The Days" with Old 97's from their album Graveyard Whistling which was released by ATO Records. Nicole Atkins covered "Joey" by Concrete Blonde, which was released December 8, 2017, as part of the Shovels & Ropes duet album, Busted Jukebox: Volume 2. ==Personal life==