It was a sweltering summer’s night at a State Room concert in Salt Lake City when The Danielle Nicole Band sent shivers down our collective spine.
Danielle Nicole’s vocal range sits somewhere on the continuum between Aretha Franklin and Amy Winehouse. A multi-award winning bassist and the first woman to ever win The Blues Music Award for the instrument, she has an uncanny ability to draw us to the stage and take us along on her magical musical ride. Armed with an ultracool mix of blues, rock, and soul from her masterful new album, The Love You Bleed, the band delivered a jaw-dropping, 16-song performance.
Nicole opened with “How Do We Get To Goodbye,” a seductive tune that captivated the audience. Dripping with sweat and pounding out a funky beat on her left-handed bass she mesmerized fans with “Hot Spell,” and got us gyrating with “Pusher Man,” a song that rocked the house with a ‘70s R&B groove.
She belted out “Take It All” with a fiery passion that gave me goosebumps (and that almost never happens). Then she did it again with “Save Me.” She opened the soulful “Right By Your Side,” with the lyric, “Baby, baby,” in a pitch-perfect howl as drummer, Kelsey Cook, punctuated the moment. Then Nicole’s bass pounded out the song’s heartbeat. Next, two wonderful new tunes, “Make Love” and “Love on My Brain,” kept me frozen by her sultry spell, my own heart fine-tuned to her bass guitar.
They also delivered some kick-ass rock ‘n’ roll. With only three musicians, they shook The State Room’s foundation with “Fireproof” and did some fine blues-infused guitar shredding on “Head Down Low.” Guitarist (and Nicole’s husband) Brandon Miller played a solo instrumental interlude. Miller started off with a classical, Spanish guitar styled riff that seamlessly morphed into an orchestral piece sounding, at times, like a violin, a cello, and an organ. All barroom chatter stopped as the audience stood motionless, in rapt attention.
The night ended with a dazzling encore rendition of Led Zeppelin’s “Rock and Roll” with Cook’s expert drumming giving way to Miller’s guitar mastery and Nicole’s siren call.
Unlike my cell service on a recent trip to Montana, there were no dead spots in this performance. Danielle Nicole, a superstar-caliber performer, drew us in from the first note and held us for the entire evening. To see her in a small listening room like The State Room felt like a VIP experience. A shout out to Utah Blues Society for sponsoring the show and bringing such a remarkable performer to our city.
Local blues crew The Alley Cats opened the memorable evening. Featuring vocalist Alex Renola, the band gave us a Nina Simone styled rendition of The Rolling Stones “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” It was just what the audience needed to get in a musical groove. The band managed to knock out a ten-song set in their limited opening-band window. They covered everything from Bo Diddley to Elvin Bishop with a little Linda Ronstadt and Tab Benoit tossed in for good measure. The beauty of this band is they take old blues and rock standards and give them a refreshed energy. They play old-school favorites in innovative new ways and revive long forgotten songs for a new generation of listeners. They’re highly skilled musicians fronted by a classically-trained vocalist. Look for them at live music spots around the Salt Lake Valley.
Who: Danielle Nicole Band with The Alley Cats
Where: The State Room
When: Friday, August 9, 2024
Info: https://thestateroompresents.com/the-state-room, https://daniellenicolemusic.com
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