Before becoming a solo artist, singer, bassist, and songwriter,
Danielle Nicole
played and sang in blues-rock band
Trampled Underfoot
with her brothers. The following year she stepped out on her own with an eponymous EP and her charting debut album,
Wolf Den
, that peaked at two. She's never looked back. She released
Live at the Gospel Lounge
in 2017 while working the road incessantly. She followed with the chart-topping, Grammy-nominated studio set
Cry No More
in March 2018. Co-produced by the artist and
Tony Braunagel
, its lineup includes
Walter Trout
,
Monster Mike Welch
Kenny Wayne Shepherd
Luther Dickinson
Johnnie Lee Schnell
Mike Finigan
, and others. Her subsequent headline tour took her across North America until 2020.
The Love You Bleed
, her third studio outing, is a welcome return.
This set differs from all its predecessors. Its songs reflect a single, multi-faceted concept of love -- its joys, stresses, losses, and redemptive power. 11 of its 12 tunes were composed or co-composed by
Nicole
with longtime guitarist
Brandon Miller
. The lone cover is a poignant read of
Steve Goodman
's "A Lover Is Forever." This date was co-produced with
Braunagel
, and performed by her road band -- with
Miller
's guitars,
Damon Parker
's keyboards, drummer
Go-Go Ray
, and string player
Stevie Blacke
.
Opener and first single "Love on My Brain" is driven by B-3, bass, and guitars.
's resonant vocal emerges from deep in the tune's grain to testify to her protagonist's joyous, almost overwhelming emotion for the beloved.
's guitar break underscores
's lyric and buoyant vocal. "Make Love," the second single and album track, revels in the rock side of R&B with a soaring vocal that pours forth emotion and longing. This tune would not have been out of place on an early-'70s
Bonnie Raitt
album. "Right by Your Side" is straight-up blue-eyed soul with
's bluesy guitar adding ballast and depth to her rich, expressive vocal. (Why
doesn't win Blues Music Awards vocalist of the year awards is a head scratcher; simply put, there are few in her league.) "How Did We Get to Goodbye" reveals the confusion both lovers share at the end of a relationship. Its minor-key blues shuffle underscores the poignancy in the vocal. The
Goodman
cover is an acoustic ballad rendered with sensitivity and uncanny poetic insight in
's lyrics and vocals that go right to the heart's ache. "Say You'll Stay" offers a lyric and vintage soul melody that could have been written by
Doc Pomus
and
Mort Shuman
. Strings and slide guitar lilt through the melodic flow as
strips away all artifice in her naked delivery. The stunning guilt-ridden "Who He Thinks You Are" is a languid, wrenching, R&B ballad that carries the album's title in its lyrics: "How the hell is he supposed to feel/The Love that you bleed/Is the life he leads...." As fine as her earlier recordings are,
towers above them lyrically, musically, and emotionally, and is one of 2024's best blues albums. ~ Thom Jurek