Nick County Explores Genres on His Latest Album, Coin of Gold

"I don't know if Miami always gets mentioned in the same breath as a New Orleans or an Austin," says country singer-songwriter Nick County, comparing Miami's music scene to others.

"There's so many different people from so many different places bringing their cultural backgrounds and unique vantage points of seeing the world and bringing it all together," shares County, who previously lived in Austin, New York City, and Pennsylvania. He has lived in Miami since 2011.

County speaks fondly about Miami's ever-changing music scene, from the many talented jazz musicians coming out of the University of Miami's Frost School of Music to the shuttered experimental venue Space Mountain. He also touches on historical moments in Miami music, like the success of Raul Malo and the Grammy-winning country band the Mavericks or the Coconut Grove stories involving Joni Mitchell, Graham Nash, and David Crosby.

Naturally, the wild diversity in Miami's nature, music, history, and people would inspire Nick County to venture outside of his usual Americana and country sound. 

But it's a conversation with his childhood friend, Ted Robinson, that served as the genesis for Coin of Gold, County's latest album released today, April 28.

County and Robinson grew up together in a small town in Wayne County, Pennsylvania, and to the present day, continue to collaborate as musicians.

"We were two creative kind of freaks. He would dance around, and I would dress weird. We didn't really fit the town," County says.

The pair shared music, from Norteño to bossa nova and classic salsa.

"We started talking about cumbia music. We were both super into this compilation, Los Mirlos, a Peruvian psychedelic cumbia compilation from the '70s. We started chatting: What if we were to create a record like this? Something different than a country album," he says.

In his early 20s, County, who was living in Austin, convinced Robinson to leave Asheville, North Carolina, for New York City, where they played together in a cow-punk/country band.

County eventually left New York to live in Miami, while Robinson now lives in Montana, but the distance wasn't enough to keep the pair from teaming up again. "It just seems like whenever Ted and I would come back into each other's orbs, we'd be on the same page, and it happened again," he says.

Just over a year ago, Robinson flew to Miami and joined County at the Selina Gold Dust Motel for a three-day stay. Each brought a bucket of ideas, and Robinson brought a collection of his mother's poems. On Valentine's Day last year, they checked out of the motel with ten tracks that would come together as Coin of Gold, sharing the name of one of the poems and the album's title track.
Three months after the songs were written, County and Robinson recorded the album, primarily at the Bridge, with a long list of Miami musicians that County rounded up — the list is long enough that he keeps track of it in an Excel sheet. The document includes the core Coin of Gold ensemble, plus another list of featured musicians across different tracks.

"There's this transient nature of Miami that pervades everything, and the more I thought about it, it made me more want to make a record down here," County explains. "The cliché is that it's like a time capsule. You get an ensemble together of all of these great musicians down here — people like Eric Escanes, Brian Potts, April Nicole, and Ana Paz — you pull all these people together, and you make something together, and it reflects a moment in time."

Coin of Gold marks the first time County has recorded an album in South Florida. His 2021 album, A Colorful Corner of Northeastern Pennsylvania, was recorded in his hometown along with friends and musicians that he brought along with him from Miami.

"[Coin of Gold] has taken me further away from where I come from, even though in a lot of ways it's brought me closer," County adds. "I'm Latin by blood, but I wasn't raised as Latin, like many of my friends that grew up down here or in El Salvador, Mexico, Peru, or Puerto Rico. But it's still a part of me, so this was a way of touching base and getting closer to that."

The album not only shares County's story, but many tracks throughout read like slice-of-life stories. Over a psychedelic cumbia beat, the track "Scotty" tells the quirky tale of a guy County met outside the motel. "The Limerick" begins with a spoken-word comedic story about a fictitious band playing at the real-life pub of the same name.

With layered percussions, harmonies, some country elements, and a psychedelic touch, Coin of Gold is reminiscent of the Grateful Dead, especially how each song makes you want to dance around like a carefree deadhead.

Coin of Gold made its live debut a year ago at the Central for Subtropical Affairs. It will return to the same venue, now renamed Understory, on May 17, giving Miamians another chance — and probably the last chance, since rounding up a bunch of professional musicians for one show isn't easy — to catch these songs live.

Nick County and the Coin of Gold Band. With the Mauskovic Dance Band. 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 17, at Understory, 7135 NW First Ct., Miami; instagram.com/understorymia. Tickets cost $12 via eventbrite.com.