Nikki O’Neill, an R&B/Americana singer-songwriter and guitarist based in Chicago, is releasing her third solo album, Stories I Only Tell My Friends. It’s being issued on Blackbird Record Label on March 14th on 12” LP vinyl, CD, digital download and streaming. Featuring eleven songs written by O’Neill, the album is co-produced by her and Rich Lackowski, and it was recorded mostly live with her 5-piece band by John Abbey at Kingsize Sound Labs in Chicago. The album’s making was largely supported by the Illinois Arts Council, who chose O’Neill as one of their Creative Catalyst Grant recipients for 2025.
Deeply in love with classic soul, rhythm and blues, and gospel from an early age, O’Neill counts Pops Staples, Prince, and Teenie Hodges as her guitar heroes, but it’s songwriting that she sees as her main love. Music journalists have called her “an expressive, nuanced singer and excellent guitarist” who makes albums with songs that demonstrate “a remarkable sense of melody.”
Written in 2023-2024, three years after O’Neill relocated to Chicago from Los Angeles, some of the songs on Stories I Only Tell My Friends revolve around exclusion, uprooting and her personal experiences with migration, while others describe the struggles of staying creative and maintaining a quiet sense of wonder in a fast-paced information-driven society. There are also songs that are pure celebrations of love. “The album seems to move from musically-driven to more lyrically-driven storytelling songs, which wasn’t premeditated,” O’Neill says.
The soul-inspired Americana sound that permeates Stories I Only Tell My Friends is very much a joint creation of O’Neill and the members of her band: Rich Lackowski (drums, percussion, harmony vocals), Chris Corsale (most lead guitars, harmony vocals) and Teddy Myers (organ, piano, Wurlitzer and Rhodes), along with John Abbey and Chris Stanford on bass. O’Neill played rhythm guitar, all acoustic guitars, the solos on “Square One” and “I Wish the Sun Could Shine on Me,” plus the twin guitar solo on “I Just Knew” (together with Corsale).
Stories I Only Tell My Friends is eloquent testimony to the inspiration she has found throughout her life’s journey.
Today Glide is offering an exclusive premiere of the album in its entirety. From songs like the upbeat and soul-twangy opener “Drive,” the happy breakup ballad “Live Like You’ve Just Begun” (with wah guitar hooks and glockenspiel to pull at your heartstrings), and O’Neill’s migration story as told in the final track, the acoustic “Newcomer Blues” (what you’re hearing is her first take), we get a look at what makes her musical approach so unique. The result is a collection of upbeat, blues and soul-inflected roots rock. O’Neill and her backing band seem to rejoice in switching from different genres, dipping into uptempo rock and roll to more slowburning soul and downright groovy fare. The result is a collection of songs that capture this talented, shapeshifting artist fully in her element.
O’Neill describes the inspiration behind the album:
“This is what I see. This is my sense of humor. These colors are my happy place. And this is what I created together with my band. It’s quite a varied album and it’s meant to be listened to as an album. It was nearly impossible to pick singles for it, since they only provide certain “windows,” but won’t give you an idea of the whole thing. There’s Soul, Rock, Gospel Blues, Americana and bluesy Folk on it. High energy vs. mellower songs. Old-timey vs. more modern sounds. Music-driven songs vs. lyric-driven story songs… and the album goes deeper into the stories as it progresses. The bookends of it are songs about travel, uprooting and finding your place in this world. I hope you’ll enjoy the listen and find something to relate to.”
LISTEN:
