If ‘Effortlessly Cool’ was in the dictionary, Nicki Bluhm’s face would be next to it. She, with her draping bangs, skinny frame, smokey voice and indie girl swagger, has a well-lived feel to her and her music that evokes years spent on a tour bus playing in dingy venues but, inevitably, seeing the world. Born in Lafayette, California, she met her future husband Tim Bluhm after singing for him in 2007. The frontman of San Francisco-based rock band The Mother Hips, he offered to mentor her and together they recorded her debut album ‘Toby’s Song’, before putting together the touring band that would eventually become The Gramblers. In 2012 ‘Driftwood’ followed featuring an array of musicians, part of whom formed The Gramblers and part of whom didn’t, but by August 2013 the line-up was official and Nicki was no longer a solo act. The release of the band’s self-titled album garnered them a huge amount of acclaim and national attention, fusing blues, country, folk, rock, pop and psychedelia for a truly varied and interesting sound.
‘Loved Wild Lost’, the band’s official second album, finds them opting for a more cohesive sound than their last record, although no less sonically fascinating and postmodern. Released in April in the States with an October release set for Europe, the album features 11 tracks of badass guitar licks, moody extended instrumentals, unavoidably catchy melodies and a tapestry of American music rooted in the 1970s, delivered with a distinctly West Coast attitude. The group have been compared to Fleetwood Mac and it’s really not hard to see where such a comparison comes from, given the likes of the pop singalong ‘Love Your Loved Ones’ and the atmospheric rocky belter ‘Heart Gets Tough’. Each track succeeds in sounding classic, in a way that feels like a lost but well-loved gem, uncovered after many years of momentarily forgetting of its existence but upon rediscovering, loving it as if it’s the first time you heard it. The tight-knit harmonies, the thick but laid-back, sun-drenched sound, the easily digestible melodies and lyrics spanning love, life, heartbreak, ageing, one’s own psychology and much more – it all combines to make Nicki Bluhm & The Gramblers a very special band indeed.
In ‘Heartache’, she imploringly asks a lover “Does it have to be a tragedy always?” highlighting her alternative perspective in such emotive situations, while retro opener ‘Only Always’ turns a romantic encounter on its head by revealing that it was all a dream. ‘Queen of The Rodeo’, while a story of a fabricated character, channels the kind of melancholic ‘outsider’ fairytale that sits well with how Nicki seems to approach the rest of her music. While Effortlessly Cool, she has worked incredibly hard to get where she is, making the sacrifices that so many creatives do to follow their art. The challenge is in making it look easy, and that’s something that the Queen of Rodeo only knows too well – to the point where the song could be about Nicki all along.
From the subversive rock ‘n’ roll of road-weary ‘Me and Slim’ to the bittersweet traditional country ballad ‘Simpler Times’, Nicki Bluhm & The Gramblers are able to brilliantly interpret any form they put their talented hands to, but with ‘Loved Wild Lost’ they choose to focus more clearly on a gritty roots sound. Alt country dances with rock ‘n’ roll while rock ‘n’ roll flirts with blues, bearing the weight of a few hefty pop melodies and tying up loose ends with the simple but incredibly effective gospel song ‘Heavy Hey Ya’, the closing track. This album is a reflection on so many things, but mostly it feels like the soundtrack to an epic American road trip with added heart and soul.
If ‘Great Music’ was in the dictionary, Nicki Bluhm’s face would be next to it, alongside her Gramblers.
Originally posted here.
