Danielle Nicole: The Love You Bleed Review

Danielle Nicole is a Grammy nominee and Blues Music Award winning artist. Her new album release on Forty Below Records, The Love You Bleed, is due out on January 26, 2024. It was co-produced by Tony Braunagel and Danielle Nicole and mixed by John Porter. Music has been a part of Danielle’s world since she was a child and recalls her blues guitar playing father and pop singing mother inspiring her to form Trampled Under Foot, her own band with her two brothers. In 2015, Nicole released Wolf Den, her first solo album which garnered 7.5 million streams on Spotify and reached the #2 spot on the Billboard Blues charts. Cry No More was released in 2018 and it received over 10 million Spotify streams and debuted at the #1 position on the Billboard Blues charts along with being nominated for a Grammy Award in the Contemporary Blues category.

The Love You Bleed has 12 heartfelt tracks exploring themes of love, loss and perseverance. Nicole provides bass guitar and vocals with Brandon Miller on a variety of guitars, keyboardist Damon Parker, drummer Go-Go Ray and Steve Blacke on violin and cello. The band is tight and Brandon Miller provides some very impressive guitar playing to compliment Danielle’s soaring vocals. “Love on My Brain” is the opening cut and provides an excellent example to illustrate the prologue. Go-Go Ray’s pounding drums provide a primal rhythm for Nicole’s wailing vocals and Miller’s searing guitar solos.

“Love on my brain

And it won’t let go”

“Make Love” follows with a Beatlesque admonishment to the listener to “make love past the pain.” Nicole’s vocals blend with the band in a harmonious chorus and Miller’s guitar embellishments. Danielle’s bass line and Ray’s steady beat create the momentum to drive home the message. The third track, “Right by Your Side” is a heart tugging torch song reminiscent of Motown or Stax as an R&B ballad. Nicole’s passionately beautiful vocals would give Gladys Knight a run for her money singing…

“Baby, baby my love won’t go

Not as long as there is breath in my lungs to blow”

“How Did We Get to Goodbye” is a melodic excursion comprised of enticing vocals accompanying Danielle’s thumping bass leading the band into a harmonious blend. Her spellbinding vocals ascend to a blend of Parker’s melodic keyboards and Ray’s hypnotic drum beat until once again Miller adds his touch. “Head Down Low” opens with a hypnotic drum beat and a ringing guitar until Danielle’s grungy blues influences transform it into a hard rocker. Miller’s wailing guitar hits the ceiling and then returns to a ringing repetition that concludes with ascending guitar peals and haunting vocals trading off as they wind down to a clapping beat. “Fireproof” is a hard rocking number with passionate vocals stretching the limits only to be overtaken by Miller’s impeccable guitar riffs. Cut #7 is “A Lover is Forever,” a jazzy sounding tune with reservedly passionate vocals accompanied by Miller’s single acoustic guitar

 “You can leave whenever you want

But a lover is forever”

“Say You’ll Stay” has Nicole’s beautiful voice passionately dancing through a variety of vocal ranges once again punctuated by Miller’s hypnotically melodic guitar. “Fools Gold” is a playfully syncopated tune with tantalizing vocals leading into Parker’s great organ solo followed by Miller’s searing guitar and back to Nicole’s sexy vocals.

“I know you won’t give a god damn about the things that I said

You sneaking round my back door taking all the scratch off of my floor”

“Walk on By” follows with a heavy sounding tune that has Nicole thumping rhythmic bass lines to accompany Go-Go’s driving drumbeat.  Once again Miller provides some stratospheric guitar playing, this time to accompany Danielle’s banshee like vocals. “Who He Thinks You Are” moves in the opposite direction musically with a gospel sound emphasized by Damon Parker’s organ combined with Nicole’s soulful vocals. The final song is “Young Love On the Hill” a country folk sounding melody with gorgeously sweet vocals reminiscent of Emmy Lou Harris accompanied by acoustic guitar. The lyrics passionately and nostalgically sing of young love in its beauty and innocence.

“How you looked at me as we laughed down the street

Sunset to sunrise in grassy fields”

Two of the most impressive things taken away after listening to The Love You Bleed is the versatility of Danielle Nicole to completely change vocal styles from soulful R&B and blues to gospel, country and grunge. Second was the band itself with Brandon Miller’s prowess on a variety of stringed instruments from electric 6 &12 string guitars to acoustic, pedal steel and mandolin to the musical stew created by Blacke, Nicole, Ray and Parker.

The Review 9/10

– Love on My Brain
– Right By Your Side
– Head Down Low
– Walk on By
– Young Love On the Hill

The Big Hit

– Head Down Low