Willie Nile is a veteran rock & roll singer and songwriter who emerged from New York's Lower East Side during the late '70s with poignant, rousing, energetic songs that were at once literate and passionate. When his self-titled debut album appeared in 1980, and especially its lead single, "Vagabond Moon," Nile's frenetic, rootsy attack drew comparisons to everyone from Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen to Tom Petty and John Mellencamp, but he carved out an identity of his own with a passionate stage attack that combined the urgency and energy of punk rock with the polish and finesse of classic rock's best writers.