Nathaniel Rateliff Performs His Mournful Ballad ‘And It’s Still Alright’ on ‘Kimmel’

Nathaniel Rateliff delivered a devastating performance of “And It’s Still Alright,” the title-track from his latest album, on Jimmy Kimmel Live Monday, November 9th.

The performance featured just Rateliff and his guitar, and was recorded in a studio space with wide windows looking out on a set of rocky red cliffs. “And It’s Still Alright” is an aching number that finds Rateliff contending with a devastating loss as he sings,  “They say you learn a lot out there/How to scorch and burn/Only have to bury your friends/Then you’ll find it gets worse.”

Rateliff released And It’s Still Alright back in February. After a couple of boisterous albums with his band the Night Sweats, And It’s Still Alright found Rateliff paring back his sound as he grappled with heavy themes like the end of his marriage, his struggles with sobriety, and the sudden death of his friend and producer, Richard Swift.

“Part of my whole process as a person is to write, and in order for me to get through whatever it is I need to get through and my own journey, I needed to make a record of songs like these that I knew couldn’t be on a Night Sweats record,” he told Rolling Stone of the album. “I know what I want the Night Sweats to be or what they need to be for our fans. We deliver a certain thing. But these songs aren’t that. Richard used to say, ‘Keep pushing for those Harry Nilsson tunes, man.’ And I was like, ‘Well, we’ll see how Nilsson I can get.’”