Danielle Nicole, The Love You Bleed, album cover

Review: Danielle Nicole ‘The Love You Bleed’

By Jim Hynes

Following a five-year hiatus, Grammy nominated blues powerhouse vocalist, bassist and songwriter, Danielle Nicole returns with her new album The Love You Bleed, a concept album with love as the single thread in all its glorious and inglorious forms. Helmed by longstanding blues producer, Tony Braunagel, Nicole’s effort leans as much to the singer-songwriter spectrum as it does toward blues. All but one of the dozen tracks was penned by either Nicole or co-written with guitarist and multiple string man Brandon Miller. The one cover is from folk icon Steve Goodman – “A Lover Is Forever.” Along with Miller and Nicole (bass and vocals), the backing unit includes Damon Parker (keyboards); Go-Go Ray (drums), and Stevie Blacke (violin and cello). The album is set to release January 26th via Forty Below Records.

The recipient of seven Blues Music Awards, Nicole has also been inducted into the Kansas City Hall of Fame. With her two brothers, she became a member of the band Trampled Underfoot and then embarked on her solo career in 2015. Her last album Cry No More was nominated for a Grammy in the contemporary blues category.

The opening track and single “Love on the Brain” casts Nicole in a powerhouse vocal over a pulsating beat and stinging, white hot guitar breaks from Miller as she sings about her obsession, and her persistence to stay the course. While this is the Nicole we are used to, the song doesn’t necessarily set the tone for the rest of album, which plays to her favor.

“Make Love,” another single, is a mashup of R&B and pop with layered vocals and more searing guitar from Miller. Once again, the theme of persistence is in her lyrics – “…push it through the pain and you’ll rise/Make love, gotta keep on trying.” “Right By Your Side” is a vintage Stax sounding soul ballad about a painful lesson learned and vowed not to be repeated, exemplifying not just the sheer power but the emotive nuances in Nicole’s vocal chops.

“Love On My Brain”

 
The lyrically rich “How Did We Get to Goodbye” raises the all-too-common issue of a relationship eroding with recognition coming all too late with devastating impact – “How did we get to goodbye/Was it all the tears we cried or was it the lies/How do you just get past/Losing what you thought would always last.” Don’t bypass the rather conventional blues riffs of “Head Down Low” which contains one of the most poignant messages here–a mother’s love for her wayward son who is described with this metaphor – “…One day he crossed the snake/Its eyes were calling Lord he’s running while he’s falling/He couldn’t hear the rattle shake.”

The Steve Goodman/Fred Knoblach “A Lover Is Forever” is a tasteful duet with Nicole singing to Miller’s acoustic guitar accompaniment, offering a nice contrast to the raging blues-rock, revealing an honest, natural vocal. In the CD sequencing, it changes the tone of the back half of the album to mostly heartfelt ballads. The dark emotive ballad “Say You’ll Stay” has Miller’s slide adding to the haunting quality of the tune where Nicole displays impressive vocal range. The stunning guilt-ridden “Who He Thinks You Are” is a slow and steady R&B ballad that sends chills. The album title is sourced from these lyrics (“How the hell is he supposed to feel/The Love that you bleed/Is the life he leads”) in what may be the album’s most defining track.

Miller again shows his acoustic picking prowess in the gorgeous rendering of fond and sad memories in “Young Love on the Hill.” Nicole’s final refrain of “I will remember” will linger long after the album stops playing. There are a couple of rockers “Fool’s Gold” and “Walk On By” interspersed here but it’s these four ballads that shine strongest.

Danielle Nicole will likely add The Love You Bleed to her impressive resume of awards with this effort, stoked with its share of indelible gems. Five years may have been worth the wait but let’s hope the next hiatus is shorter.

Pre-order The Love You Bleed HERE