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Musician Nathaniel Rateliff Holds Rural Roots Close on Farm Aid Board
Native of Hermann, Missouri Spoke to Data Centers Controversy at Farm Aid 2026
Nathaniel Rateliff was born in 1978 and was raised in the small Missouri River city of Hermann, located between his St. Louis birthplace and Jefferson City. His first introduction to playing music was as a child drummer who often performed at church.
He relocated to Denver about a quarter century ago and achieved first local, then national stardom after the 2013 launch of his band Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats, whose musical styles channel rhythm & blues, folk and Americana. He and the band made their Farm Aid debut in 2016, and this past February he became the newest musician member of the organization's Board of Directors, joining Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp — who co-founded the non-profit in 1985 — and newer members Dave Matthews and Margo Price.
Though he became a music icon in Denver, Nathaniel has not lost touch with his rural roots. A backlash against the proliferation of massive data centers in rural America was in the air at Farm Aid 2026 in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and he addressed the matter during the press event that preceded the concert:
I think first we need to organize those people and educate people. In my home state of Missouri, it's actually Montgomery County, Google and Amazon were just awarded 1,900 acres, so that's almost three miles of woodland that right now is absorbing water. That's in an area on the Missouri River that floods every year, so it'll have some huge impacts to the area around there.
Rateliff's set at Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater was his first without The Night Sweats. But it wasn't strictly a solo outing as he was joined onstage by I'm With Her, a harmonizing all-woman trio who had their own set earlier in the program and would also join Dave Matthews and accompanist Tim Reynolds in a later set.
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