‘Nero’ was born in early 2014 when Ian brought a few dozen songs to Berlin. Before the album was done it had spilled over into three different studios, two bedrooms, and one concrete basement (with no toilet) in Berlin, Hamburg, and Vienna. “The album has a lot to do with the destruction of who you once were in order to become something different.” Fisher explains. “I’ve really lost my Americanism, the majority of it anyway, and one of the reasons why I’ve turned back to country music is in an attempt to find a part of me that I lost.” Nero is steeped in the homegrown country and folk roots of Ian’s songwriting and shaped by a tasteful, “no fancy stuff”, German production approach. The tracks are largely lead by Fisher’s pristine voice with a consistent backdrop of close acoustic guitars and spacious piano and pedal steel guitar. Percussion is also quite present throughout the album, allowing the acoustic guitar to fall into the groove while the rhythmic burden is carried by someone else, á la Johnny Cash. Nero’s palette is broad and the variety between tracks is very rich with uncluttered and poignant arrangements that always put the songs first. Songs of a young man who has traveled so long that he is a stranger in his hometown. What’s more heroically country than that?

Ian Fisher - vocals / acoustic guitar / banjo Ryan Thomas Carpenter - piano / wurlitzer / acoustic guitar / synth / bass guitar / percussion / banjo / backing vocals Ollie Samland - pedal steel guitar / dobro / mandolin Alexia Peniguel - backing vocals Fabian Kalker - bass guitar / synth Heta Salkolahti - fiddle on "All Ya Need" Sven Fritz - fiddle on "Almost Darlin'" Harmen Ridderbos - backing vocals on "Almost Darlin'"

Produced by Fabian Kalker Co-produced by Carpenter, Samland, Peniguel, & Fisher Mixed by Hannes Bieger Mastered by Tammo Kersbergen

All Songs Written by Ian Fisher Recorded in Berlin