James Eichman Releases ST. CATHERINE STREET, to Tour With Renny Conti From Oct. 9
The Nashville songwriter recorded the album with Josef Kuhn during a winter stretch in his home studio.
Nashville artist and multi-instrumentalist James Eichman has released his debut album, St. Catherine Street, available everywhere now. After playing with artists like Annie DiRusso, Emma Ogier, and Hannah Cole and releasing a string of singles and EPs, the release marks Eichman's first full-length effort.
Recorded over a few scattered weeks in early 2026 at collaborator Josef Kuhn's home studio, the album was built during a stretch that included a Nashville snowstorm, leaving the two of them stranded indoors and walking to the gas station for food between takes. Marking the first time Eichman has recorded with anyone other than himself and a laptop mic, the difference shows without ever losing the raw, unfinished quality that made his earlier bedroom recordings feel so lived-in. Room mics catch the space between the notes as much as the music itself, guitar, banjo, and fiddle bleeding into harmonies, tracing raw storytelling with a gentle hum.
'Throughout the record, I used imagery inspired by a small town in Mississippi I spent a lot of time in as a kid called Natchez. Natchez has such a complicated and dark history, and I feel particularly drawn to exploring that place in my songwriting as an embodiment of a hometown that feels oppressive yet strangely familiar. St. Catherine Street is a real street in Natchez, and one that was central to Natchez's dark history,' James explains. 'In the title track, the main character takes this street to go home from work and hates that he's been driving down that road his whole life. I've felt this way countless times in my hometown, Nashville. I also think throughout the record you can hear me growing up and making sense of my life as I transitioned into adulthood, navigating relationships and social scenarios. A lot of the songs tell fictional stories that don't directly relate to my life but reflect my real emotions through the characters that I write about.' James spent this year previewing St. Catherine Street one character at a time. '4 am' arrived first, a portrait of internal battles and being disappointed in yourself. 'Paper Plate' followed, channeling small-town restlessness with the Mississippi River standing in the way. 'Daisy' came next with a music video, a mother and daughter story James spent a full year writing, one line at a time, until it found its shape. 'Rolling Summer Thunder' closed out the run, contemplating depression and how quickly it can bring you underwater.
Performing with artists like Oscar Lindsey, Truman Sinclair, and Hank Heaven, James Eichman is bringing St. Catherine Street across the country this fall. In October, he heads out on the road to support Renny Conti on a run of dates that begins October 9 in Chicago, IL, at Schubas Tavern, with stops across the U.S. For more information, follow James on Instagram at @eichman.james.
James Eichman Live 2026
October 9 – Chicago, IL – Schubas Tavern
October 13 – Seattle, WA – Sunset Tavern
October 14 – Portland, OR – Polaris Hall
October 16 – San Francisco, CA – Café Du Nord
October 17 – Los Angeles, CA – The Echo
October 23 – Brooklyn, NY – Baby's All Right
October 24 – Philadelphia, PA – Silk City Diner
October 25 – Washington, DC – Songbyrd Music House
Tracklist
If I Talk Loud Enough
4AM
Paper Plate
Daisy
I Am Not the Person That You Knew
On the Walls of My Old Bedroom
St. Catherine Street
Rolling Summer Thunder
Smoking Again
You and I Both Know
About James Eichman
James Eichman's songwriting evokes the nostalgia of early 2000's indie folk with a narrative style reminiscent of the Americana sound that has surrounded him since childhood. As a member of various bands in the DIY Nashville scene, James quickly gained experience as a multi-instrumentalist and touring musician while quietly releasing his own self-recorded material. His debut album, St. Catherine Street, explores themes of grief and a desperate longing for change, set against a vivid backdrop of the American South. St. Catherine Street takes its name from a real road in Natchez, Mississippi, a small town central to Eichman's childhood and central to the record's sense of place, a town with a dark and familiar energy in equal measure. Each song works as its own short story, a father watching his daughter's TV debut instead of showing up for it, a woman locked out in the cold lighting another cigarette, characters built from imagined lives that still carry Eichman's real preoccupations with family, guilt, and growing up somewhere that never quite lets you go.
Photo Credit: Christian Modica @cmoddd [Download Hi-Res]
Photo Credit: Christian Modica @cmoddd [Download Hi-Res]
