Nicki Bluhm Goes Solo With Cathartic “To Rise You Gotta Fall” (ALBUM REVIEW)

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Nicki Bluhm had a nice six-year stint going with her band, The Gramblers, playing large venues, mega festivals, and sharing the stage with top grossing acts. Then her marriage to husband and bandleader Tim Bluhm fell apart and Nicki had to figure out her next move. She wrote the life-chronicling songs for To Rise You Gotta Fall over a two-year period, during which she got divorced and moved to Nashville, TN. The album is a blood and guts outpouring of her state of mind following these major life changes. Yet, she comes across with a kind of breezy, oft sultry, oft dreamy soul befitting Memphis that belies some of the lyrics, that, as you might expect, are not for the faint of heart. “These songs are quite personal,” Bluhm says, “They are the conversations I never got to have, the words I never had the chance to say, and the catharsis I wouldn’t have survived without.”

The album was recorded in Memphis l at the legendary Sam Phillips Recording and features two co-writes with Ryan Adams and a Dan Penn cover. For these live band, analog sessions, where almost all tracks were done in one take, Bluhm brought in producer Matt Ross-Spang (Margo Price, Greyhounds), and the studio band included Will Sexton (guitar), Ross-Spang (guitars), Ken Coomer (drums and percussion), Al Gamble (Hammond B3), Rick Steff (piano) and Dave Smith (bass), with Reba Russell and Susan Marshall (background singers), Sam Shoup (string arrangements) and various special guests. In other words, she had the crème de la crème of Memphis roots musicians.

Bluhm has always had a soulful vocal approach but it was steeped in that Bay Area psychedelia that her former husband, Tim Bluhm, brought from his other band, area favorite Mother Hips. Although she had confidence, she knew her approach had to be different, so she moved to Nashville, the hotbed of songwriting, to feed off that inspiration. Ross-Spang happened to be mixing a record in Nashville at the time and they connected immediately, eventually deciding to record in Memphis because Bluhm didn’t want any baggage, any familiarity with players. She was intent on a completely new start.

Each of these songs captures a different phase of a dissolving marriage of a decade. Glean these titles, for example: the upbeat, defiant “Can’t Fool The Fool,” the contemplative “You Stopped Loving Me (I Can’t Stop Loving You),” and the rocking shuffle “It’s OK Not To Be OK” replete with the background singers. She says, “The earliest song written for the album is ‘How Do I Love You’ and was essentially a plea to understand how to make the communication better in a marriage I was desperate to save. ‘Battlechain Rose’ is a coming to terms with the reality of deception and betrayal while ‘To Rise You Gotta Fall’ is a more hopeful message born out of a lot of therapy, contemplation, time, self-help and healing.”

It helped Bluhm to have some co-writers, especially Ryan Adams. One of these is the visceral “Something Really Mean” with its line “something really mean that would hurt her.” Adams taught her to trust her stream of consciousness. Another one who helped was Simon Gugala for “The Last to Know,” after which Bluhm felt she was in a therapy session and learned how important it was to express herself freely. The geography of the sessions also factored in as they wanted a cover song associated with Memphis, ultimately choosing Dan Penn’s “I Hate You.”

Nicki Bluhm, now a newly inspired songwriter and solo artist, is rebuilding her life and looking forward to the challenge of establishing herself on her own. She says, “…. When the album finally comes out it’s going to be like setting a caged bird free.” Emotional music often brings out the best in a vocalist. Bluhm seems even better suited for this material than the happy, light-hearted fare that made her popular in the first place.

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