Nicole Atkins is proud to announce her long-awaited new album, Drama, arriving via Sun Records / Wicked Game Records on Friday, September 18. Pre-orders/pre-saves are available now. The acclaimed singer-songwriter’s seventh studio album and first all-new full-length release in over six years, Drama is heralded by today’s premiere of the first single, “When the Night Falls,” available everywhere now. An official music video, filmed in Nashville and conceived by Atkins and the Sun team, also premieres today and is streaming now on YouTube.  

Photo Credit: Barbara FG

 

“I got together with my old friend Emery Dobyns to write a song together,” said Nicole Atkins. “We had these chords, and the feeling from the music reminded me of something I would’ve written for my first album, Neptune City, and I thought about where I was back then. The toxic love affair. And tying it into who and where I am now, and being able to write a song about terrible love from a place of power. Some would call it growth. I’m just still in love with the ‘sound’ of heartache. It gets me like no other.”

 

LISTEN TO “WHEN THE NIGHT FALLS”

WATCH “WHEN THE NIGHT FALLS” OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO

PRE-ORDER/PRE-SAVE DRAMA

 

Largely recorded live over four productive days in her current home base of Nashville, TN, with GRAMMY® Award-nominated musician/producer Pat Sansone (Wilco, The Autumn Defense, Robyn Hitchcock), Drama sees Atkins exploring the isolation, separation, and loneliness of a long-distance marriage through her signature fusion of musical genres and intimate lyrical songcraft. The album came together at the behest of her close friend and touring partner Chris Isaak, who signed her to Sun Records as part of his strategic alliance with the historic label as both artist and curator of new projects with his new imprint, Wicked Game Records. Drama spans style and era with smart design and an irrepressible buoyancy, from the girl group rush of “Trippin’ On Teardrops” and Memphis soul-styled “For No One” to the James Bond-meets-Stevie Nicks noir of “Danny” and the wonderfully moody duet with Isaak, “Cue The Symphony.”

“I’ve been in love with Nicole’s songs for many years and have always followed her career,” says Chris Isaak. “She and I are so simpatico when it comes to the music that inspires us, and she has a unique way of distilling that into her songwriting. She’s a true craftsman and an incredible singer. When it came time to start the label, she was my first thought. I’m so honored that she’s the label’s first signing, and I love ‘Drama!’”

Accompanied by her touring band, guitarist John Paul Keith and drummer Danny Banks, with contributions by Sansone, in-demand drummer Eric Slick (Dr. Dog, Robyn Hitchcock, Brian Fallon), The Texas Gentlemen’s Dan Creamer, and Scottish troubadour Davey Horne, Atkins once again showcases her alchemical ability to transform myriad influences into singular sonic statements, leaning into the deeply personal in her ongoing quest to “write modern songs that could be part of the Great American Songbook.” Through it all, Atkins’s vivid, unabashedly dramatic voice flies far above easy comparison. Neo-classicist, retro-futurist, and transcendental medium – Drama makes it plain that Nicole Atkins somehow remains all of those things while always wholeheartedly following her own muse.

 

“I’m not trying to rehash or celebrate some bygone era,” Nicole Atkins says. “I’m just taking what I like melodically from the past and channeling it into my songs. I like to make them deeply personal. The question I come back to is – how do I make this sound exactly like me?”

 

Atkins will celebrate the arrival of Drama with a wide-ranging tour schedule, including a top-billed performance as part of Bethlehem, PA’s annual Musikfest, set for Air Products Americaplatz at Levitt Pavilion SteelStacks on Sunday, August 2. Her Fall tour begins October 9 at Columbus, OH’s Rumba Cafe and continues through to Skinny Dennis in Nashville, TN on December 3. For updates, please visit www.nicoleatkins.com/tour. 

 

 

NICOLE ATKINS

DRAMA

(Sun Records)

Release Date: Friday, September 18, 2026

TRACKLIST:

Trippin’ on Teardrops

Singing in the Mirror

Like a Stranger

When the Night Falls

Cue the Symphony

Like It’s The First Time

Curtain Call

For No One

Real Life

Crying Out Loud

Danny

Softly, As You Were

NICOLE ATKINS – TOUR 2026

AUGUST

2 – Bethlehem, PA – Levitt Pavilion SteelStacks

OCTOBER

9 – Columbus, OH – Rumba Cafe

10 – Louisville, KY – Whirling Tiger

11 – Indianapolis, IN – HIFI

NOVEMBER

13 – Columbia, MO – Rose Music Hall

14 – Kansas City, MO – Record Bar

15 – Omaha, NE – Reverb Lounge

17 – St. Paul, MN – Turf Club

18 – Milwaukee, WI – Vivarium

20 – Grand Rapids, MI – Pyramid Scheme

21 – Ann Arbor, MI – Blind Pig

22 – Cleveland, OH – Beachland

24 – Albany NY – Lark Hall

25 – Hamden, CT – Space Ballroom

27 – Asbury Park, NJ – Wonder Bar

28 – Annapolis, MD – Rams Head

29 – Richmond, VA – Richmond Music Hall

DECEMBER

1 – Charlotte, NC – Snug Harbor

2 – Asheville, NC – Revival

3 – Nashville, TN – Skinny Dennis

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