Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers - The Van Sessions, Part 3 (2013-2017)

Way back in 2019, I posted two albums I made of the band Nicki Bluhm and Gramblers performing cover songs. They got some media attention for a few years through the gimmick of recording cover songs while the played inside a van driving down the road. For reasons I'll explain, I've gone back and made a third album of their van sessions. I also completely overhauled and added to the two albums I'd made already.

The one problem with these songs recorded in a van was that they were... genuinely recorded in a van! That meant a lot of ambient noise, such as the sound of gear shifts and nearby traffic. When I posted some songs back in 2019, I tried to clean that up as best I could, but there wasn't much I could do, given the tools available at the time. But recently I discovered a relatively new tool for the MVSEP program called "denoise." It does a fantastic job of reducing hiss and other noise without damaging the music. One of the first thoughts I had when I started that was that I could finally get rid of the hiss on the two albums I'd made by this band. But then it occurred to me I could probably fix more songs they did that had even more hiss. There were some I had discarded because the hiss problem was too much.

So I went back to their old videos posted on YouTube and downloaded the songs I had previously skipped. To my delight, when I tried using the denoise function on them, all that hiss disappeared, even on the extreme cases! I swear, what audio editing technology can do these days is like magic. I found enough material for a third album, as well as drastically improving the sound quality for the songs I'd posted already.

Note however that I just redid the other two albums at the same time I'm posting this, and the new songs are scattered over all three albums. Eight out of 14 songs on this album are new.  But also, six out of 16 songs on Volume 1 are new, and four out of 15 songs on Volume 2 are new. So if you like this, you really should redownload the other two volumes as well. Between the new songs and the de-hissed old songs those albums are drastically improved. Here are the links:

Volume 1: 

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2019/04/nicki-bluhm-gramblers-van-sessions-part.html

Volume 2:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2019/04/nicki-bluhm-gramblers-van-sessions-part_16.html 

Nicki Bluhm and the Gramblers were in existence from about 2010 to 2018. Nicki Bluhm has continued with a successful solo career, but she hasn't done anything like the van sessions. So this focuses just on the Gramblers time period. Even with the Gramblers, the actually van sessions started strong in 2011 and 2013, and then slowly trailed off. On this album, tracks 2, 4, 5, 10, 12, and 13 were actually recorded inside their van. The rest are from various sources. Tracks 1, 11, and 14 are from concerts. (I removed the applause from those.) The others are from webcasts and radio sessions and things of that nature, without an audience. Check out the mp3 tags for the exact details.

This album is 54 minutes long.

Here's a list of the original musical acts for each song: 

01 Somebody to Love - Jefferson Airplane
02 Lido Shuffle - Boz Scaggs
03 In the Mountains - Sarah Siskind
04 Dire Wolf - Grateful Dead
05 I Wanna Dance with Somebody - Whitney Houston
06 One Toke Over the Line - Brewer & Shipley
07 I Can Get Off on You - Waylon Jennings & Willie Nelson
08 Blue Christmas - Elvis Presley
09 Bird Song - Grateful Dead
10 Mr. Saturday Night - Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers
11 Statesboro Blues - Blind Willie McTell
12 Picture Book - Kinks
13 That's All - Genesis
14 Piece of My Heart - Janis Joplin

And here's the usual song list: 

01 Somebody to Love (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
02 Lido Shuffle (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
03 In the Mountains (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
04 Dire Wolf (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
05 I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
06 One Toke Over the Line (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
07 I Can Get Off on You (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
08 Blue Christmas (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
09 Bird Song (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
10 Mr. Saturday Night (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
11 Statesboro Blues (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
12 Picture Book (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
13 That's All (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
14 Piece of My Heart (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/o2xb6dLu

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/0I9h1P6yZA2NzaS/file

The cover is a screenshot I took of the band performing a song in their van. I used Krea AI to improve the detail.

Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers - The Van Sessions, Part 2 (2012-2013)

Here's the second of my two Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers' "The Van Sessions" albums. Please see my write up for the first album for an explanation. But, in short, even if you've never heard of this band, you'll want to hear their cover versions of hit songs, all recorded while they were driving in a van down a highway.

Before I say more, note that I first posted this album in 2019. Then I drastically overhauled it in 2026. I turned two albums into three, so some songs got moved from Volume 1 to this volume, and from this volume to a new Volume 3. Four songs were added to this volume, and more to the other two volumes. Furthermore, the sound quality of all the songs were drastically improved, due to new technology that allowed me to pretty much completely get rid of the hiss. And there was a lot of hiss, due to the way these were recorded in a van while it was actually moving. 

The "van sessions" songs were ordered on YouTube, from 1 to 37. I included the numbers in the mp3 tags when I could find them, and all the songs are in chronological order. All but four of the songs here are from the actual van sessions. The other four - tracks, 10, 11, 12, and 15 - are generally from other webcast broadcasts. You can find the exact details in the mp3 tags.

One thing I really like about their covers is that they're willing to play the songs they love no matter how uncool they are. They do versions of songs by Madonna, Whitney Houston, Paula Abdul, Kenny Rogers, and the like, as well as the usual classic rock suspects. I may not like the original versions of some of those songs, but their covers all sound good, and fun.

This album is 56 minutes long. 

UPDATE: On January 30, 2026, I heavily revised this album. See the changes discussed above. 

Here's a list of the original artists for each song: 

01 Islands in the Stream - Dolly Parton & Kenny Rogers
02 Watercolor Canvas - Bobby Darin
03 I Can t Go for That [No Can Do] - Hall & Oates
04 Easy - Commodores
05 Faith - George Michael
06 Hit Me with Your Best Shot - Pat Benatar
07 Days like This - Van Morrison
08 Stuck in the Middle with You - Stealers Wheel
09 Let's Hear It for the Boy - Deniece Williams
10 Fever - Little Willie John
11 Loving You Is Sweeter than Ever - Four Tops
12 Reno, Nevada - Mimi & Richard Farina
13 Band on the Run - Paul McCartney
14 Take the Money and Run - Steve Miller Band
15 Danny's Song - Loggins & Messina

Here's the usual song list:

01 Hit Me with Your Best Shot (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
02 Days like This (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
03 Stuck in the Middle with You (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
04 Band on the Run (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
05 Take the Money and Run (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
06 Lido Shuffle (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
07 Danny's Song (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
08 I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
09 One Toke Over the Line (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
10 I Can Get Off on You (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
11 Bird Song (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
12 Mr. Saturday Night (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
13 Picture Book (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/237u1ArE

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/x3r2pvOf6xnZf3F/file

The cover art is a photo of the band getting ready to record another video inside their van.

Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers - The Van Sessions, Part 1 (2011-2012)

First off, I want to say that this post (and the next one) is 100% due to a post by Uncle Dan back at his alternate albums website "What-If." I'd never heard of Nicky Bluhm and the Gramblers until I saw an album of their stuff that he posted. He stated that he got hooked by watching their video of their cover of Hall and Oates' "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)." So I went to YouTube and watched the video, and I got hooked too.

I recommend you check out that video too. It has over four million views, and with good reason, because it's lots of fun. Nicki Bluhm and the Gramblers were a band that unfortunately broke up in 2018. But while they were still around, they liked to record videos of themselves playing cover songs while driving down the highway in their van. Amazingly, Bluhm was both the lead singer and sometimes kazoo player while driving the van during the videos!

But it's not just a gimmick of playing songs while driving. They were a really good band, and Bluhm is a talented singer. There's something about her slightly rough voice and singing style that I think makes her special. Having to play in a moving vehicle forced them to play all acoustic, and I have particular love for acoustic music. Their cover of "I Can't Go for That" is a good place to start, because it's done so well. They seriously should have released that and had a big hit with it. But all their other songs are done really well too.

I started by downloading Uncle Dan's compilation album of their "Van Sessions" cover songs, which you can find here:

https://whatif-misc.blogspot.com/2018/09/nicki-bluhm-and-gramblers-van-sessions.html

That's good stuff. However, there was a problem: due to the fact the videos were recorded in a van driving down a highway, there was a lot of background noise on the songs. For instance, one could hear the sound of passing cars creating extra loud hiss from time to time. This was worse on some songs than on others. 

I first posted this album in 2019. At that time, there wasn't much that could be done about all that hiss. So there were many songs that I skipped over because I didn't think they sounded good enough. However, I reposted this album in 2026. By then, audio editing technology had improved drastically, thanks to AI-related technology. I was able to use the "denoise" function of the MVSEP program to pretty much wipe away the hiss entirely!

Thanks to that technology, I completely redid this album. I got rid of the hiss on all the songs I'd posted in 2019. Then I added in more songs that I had passed over due to the hiss problem. There are six new songs here. Four songs were also moved to Volume 2. Then some songs from Volume 2 were moved to a brand new Volume 3. So if you like this, I strongly suggest you get all three volumes.

This album is 53 minutes long.

UPDATE: On January 30, 2026, I heavily revised this album. The changes are discussed above. 

Here's a list of the original musical acts for each song: 

01 Tonight You Belong to Me - Patience & Prudence
02 Hey Baby - Bruce Channel
03 How Will I Know - Whitney Houston
04 Ramblin' Man - Allman Brothers Band
05 You're No Good - Dee Dee Warwick
06 Everyday - Buddy Holly
07 How Sweet It Is [To Be Loved by You] - Marvin Gaye
08 Material Girl - Madonna
09 Don't Worry, Be Happy - Bobby McFerrin
10 Deal - Grateful Dead
11 Pack Up Your Sorrows - Mimi & Richard Farina
12 Forever Your Girl - Paula Abdul
13 I'm Your Woman - Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers
14 Here Comes the Sun - Beatles
15 Can You Get to That - Funkadelic
16 She's Got You - Patsy Cline

And here's the usual song list:

01 Hey Baby (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
02 Ramblin' Man (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
03 You re No Good (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
04 Everyday (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
05 Material Girl (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
06 Don t Worry, Be Happy (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
07 Deal (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
08 Forever Your Girl (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
09 I'm Your Woman (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
10 Here Comes the Sun (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
11 Islands in the Stream (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
12 I Can't Go for That [No Can Do] (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
13 Easy (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
14 Faith (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/c9CmQcu6

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/WZ20fh6A6vGuCsH/file

For the cover art, I created a screenshot from the video of the band singing "I Can't Go for That" in their van. I upgraded it with the Krea AI program.