Danielle Nicole – The Love You Bleed
12 songs – 55 minutes
A double threat as both a world-class vocalist and a decorated bassist, too, Danielle Nicole hasn’t been in the studio since earning a Grammy nomination for the album Cry No More five years ago, but she’s destined to earn another with this long awaited CD, which exhibits all the grit and determination needed to transverse the world of romance and all the pitfalls faced along the way.
Once the darling of the industry as a member of the family band, Trampled Under Foot, Danielle launched her solo career in 2015 and has never looked back, garnering seven Blues Music Awards and multiple Blues Blast Music Awards trophies along the way. And this album — like those of her youth – is truly a family affair. Instead of teaming with her guitarist brother, Nick Schnebelen, and their dear, departed brother, Kris, however, she teams with six-string monster Brandon Miller, who’s both a force of nature as a bandleader in his own right and also happens to be her husband.
The duo teamed here to pen seven of the 12 tracks with Danielle adding five of her own. And she reinvents the sole cover, a number penned by Steve Goodman, the folk giant who was only age 36 and at the height of his career when he succumbed to leukemia in the mid-‘80s. As usual, Danielle’s powerful and expressive alto soars throughout, steeped in emotion, while Brandon provides perfect accompaniment on slide, acoustic and mandolin.
Grammy-winning producer Tony Braunagel teamed with Danielle to supervise the production, which was engineered by Duane Trower at Weights and Measures Soundlab in Kansas City and mixed by fellow John Porter, who earned a Grammy himself for his work on New Orleans keyboard giant Jon Cleary’s 2016 winner, Go Go Juice. They’re backed by Damon Parker on keys and Go-Go Ray on drums with Stevie Backe adding strings and Braunagel adding additional percussion.
Contemporary R&B drenched blues at its best, the set opens with a solitary, funky drumbeat from Go-Go before Danielle takes to the mic and delivers the first verse of “Love on My Brain” solo. It’s a pulsating number that quickly erupts and expresses bewilderment at why her man doesn’t see why she glows when he’s at her side. It’s an obsession, she admits, but she’s also certain that she had enough persistence to make him understand. The mood sweetens and slows for “Make Love,” in which she doubles down on her emotions, acknowledging the guy’s troubled by something in his past and that he needs to give himself up to romance in order to heal.
“Right by Your Side,” a Memphis-style ballad, follows with Danielle recounting mistakes from her past and vowing never to repeat them. Unfortunately, however, that’s not the case because the next tune, “How Did We Get to Goodbye,” finds her still wondering what caused the couple to go their separate ways. “Head Down Low,” meanwhile, departs from the theme momentarily. It’s delivered from the point-of-view of a mother who yearns for her son who left home after taking the bait of someone described as a snake.
Brandon powers the rocker, “Fireproof,” a beefy statement that – whatever transpires – Danielle will rise from the flames. Their version of Goodman’s “A Lover Is Forever,” which is delivered as a duet between her voice and his acoustic guitar, tears at the heartstrings as it emotes the pain one lover feels when the other gets ready to say goodbye. The original that follows, “Say You’ll Stay,” continues the theme with a quiet, full-band arrangement and Miller on slide.
A pair of rockers — “Fool’s Gold,” the admission that what had appeared from a distance to be a true love wasn’t, and “Walk on By,” the acceptance to leave the man behind after getting close – follow before the soulful ballad, “Who He Thinks You Are,” describes the man waiting for his lady to return and her knowing that one day he’ll come to terms with the knowledge that he’s wasted his time and there’s no one to blame but himself. The closing acoustic number, “Young Love on the Hill,” looks back sweetly at the struggles in the rear-view mirror while driving down the road.
Don’t miss The Love You Bleed. It’s a masterpiece chockful of emotion.
