Darling Nicki | Nicki Bluhm and the Gramblers Live Review and Interview | Suwannee Springfest March 19, 2016 | Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park

by Jason Earle • May 3, 2016

Nicki Bluhm is a datil pepper added to an already hearty dish-exquisite, a little smokey, additive of the right compliment of spice. She sits in with her tourmates and collaborators, The Infamous Stringdusters, is called on stage by the legendary Jim Lauderdale, and even plays with festival favorites Donna the Buffalo. Bluhm is a sought after player at Suwannee Springfest 2016, adding to each serving with her grace.

But first, the stunning woman with the rightfully popular voice graced the amphitheatre stage with her incredible band, The Gramblers. Like fellow powerhouse Brandi Carlisle before her, Bluhm is taken by the majesty of Spirit of the Suwannee. And Suwannee is taken in by her kind.

Bluhm is every bit the rockstar on stage, wearing a Native American-inspired tan dress, bangs in front of her gorgeous face, her voice the instrument she plays masterfully for thousands in the amphitheatre. The Gramblers take center stage when necessary, such as when Andy Hall from the Stringdusters joined them during a rendition of “Statesboro Blues.” It seems like a blast. Not a hedonistic party, but a group of serious musicians giving credence to the art while not taking themselves too seriously.

After a well-balanced and show-stopping set, Nicki Bluhm and all of The Gramblers, sat down with Shows I Go To for a sometimes serious, mostly silly, wholly gracious discussion about Suwannee, the creative process, and whether they should be called The Baby Jesuses. Or, is it Jesus’s, or Jesusi … ? Some questions are better left unresolved.

Nicki Bluhm Interview 2016

SIGT (Jason Earle): First Springfest? First time at Suwannee, period? First impressions of Suwannee would be a good place to start.

Nikki Bluhm: I can’t wait to see what it turns into at night.

SIGT: So many amazing players around here. If you got to put together a dream jam session, who would you want to play with? You only get four players. No one from your own band.

Del McCoury (everyone pretty much in unison).

NB: We’ll call it Swamp City. Or, Swamp Foot.

That’ll fly off the shelves!

NB: I hope I don’t get a case.

SIGT: You have this incredible band, and your voice is an amazing instrument itself. Does that impact the way you write songs? Do you have to be aware of that dichotomy?

NB: I have to say, I don’t think about that too much. I guess I could think about it more. I’m usually writing like, “I’m in my bedroom right now.” Songs you write where you are putting out your feelings versus songs that are gonna kick-ass live. There’s room for both.

Guitar Player, Deren Ney: I find the other side fun. When I write it, I think about me singing it. I know it’s gonna get ten times better when she sings it. She’ll fix it. I hand it over; and if it’s a bad melody, she’ll make it good.

NB: No, they come just as they are.

Deren: That’s very sweet, but not true.

NB: They come in like sweet baby Jesus’s

[Everyone laughs]

SIGT: Have you thought about changing the name of the band to Nicki Bluhm and the Baby Jesus’s?

NB: That would be so much easier, because everybody knows exactly what Baby Jesus is.

SIGT: No more, “What’s a Grambler?”

Guitar Player Dave Mulligan: You never have to spell Jesus out for somebody.

Wait, how would we spell Jesuses?

[Conversation about the grammar of Nicki and the Baby Jesus’s ensues. Does it need an apostrophe … ? Is it ‘es’ … ?]

NB: No one wants to listen to a conversation about how to spell Baby Jesus’s.

SIGT: EVERYone wants to listen to this. Please don’t stop.

[More Jesus grammar talk ensues.]

Deren: Is this the best rock interview you’ve ever had?

SIGT: This is wonderful.

Deren: We have the math section coming up.

SIGT: My next question was gonna be about your creative process, but I think you just answered it.

Deren: We just displayed it right here.

SIGT: But seriously, what is your creative process? Is it truly you all bouncing ideas and challenging each other?

Deren: Part of our process is sharing ideas with each other and seeing what stirs up. Then in the pre-production process we get together and jam.

NB: sham?

Deren: sham.

Bassist, Steve Adams: It’s pretty organic in a way. We are all super comfortable with each other. We’ll share a song with each other even if it’s super fragile. It’s very trusting.

NB: It’s like a soft landing for your song. We’re all a soft landing for each other’s songs which is a really nice thing to feel.

SIGT: That’s incredible. That’s really difficult to find.

NB: It hasn’t always been that way.

SIGT: Did time fix that?

Steve: Understanding and getting to know each other better.

Deren: There is a mutual respect between us.

NB: The golden rule.

SIGT: This has turned into like a school session.

NB (pointing at Dave Mulligan): We are both former teachers.

Deren, pointing at bassist Steve Adams: He was teacher’s pet! [Band goes into a minute of deciding who fit which archetype in a classroom.]

SIGT: We have officially lost our way. What does that creative process look like for each of you individually? Do you need that head space? Are you constantly writing down ideas? Can you write on the road?

NB: It’s totally different for each of us. I just started writing down more lately–fragments of thoughts. Which is cool, but now it’s a job in itself to go to my phone, go to my notes, I’ve got three journals going. It’s a little crazy.

Deren: For me it has definitely changed. I used to get an idea and really think about it for a while, sort of stalk it, until I felt like I had it, and then I’d take a stab at it and work with it.
Lately I’ve been trying to do things differently. I saw an interview with Neil Young where he said that he has been in the middle of conversations, had an idea for a song, and just walked away.

NB: Which just happened to us.

Deren: He’s just like, “It’s now.”

Steve: I’ll be right back, sorry.

[Everyone laughs heartily.]

Deren: It’s this thing that is arriving from the universe and you just gotta go do it in that moment. He wrote three of his bigger songs in one day when he had a 104 degree fever. He just kept getting ideas and writing them down. I was inspired by that. So I’m trying to kinda capture those moments. If I get a half decent idea, I try to go right there and go into it and see what happens. The results have been mixed, but I like that I have all these ideas sitting there now.

Nicki Bluhm’s name is rightfully on the marquee, but fifteen minutes with the band illustrated just how tight a unit she has with The Gramblers. As a band they charmed Suwannee. As an individual, Nicki Bluhm spiced up not only her own outstanding set, but that of so many others throughout the weekend.

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Nicki Bluhm Interview, Nicki Bluhm and the Gramblers Live Review and Concert Photos by Jason Earle, edited by Matthew Weller.

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