Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers - The Van Sessions, Part 2 (2012-2016)

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 down the highway.

The first album were from the years 2011 and 2012, and all of the songs on that one were from the actual "Van Sessions." This deals with 2012 to 2016. The number of videos slowly went down until the band broke up. All of these recordings come from YouTube videos posted by the band. The "Van Sessions" were ordered, from around 1 to 30, though it seems they skipped some numbers and/or didn't number some of them. I included the numbers in the mp3 tags when I could find them, and all the songs are in chronological order.

For the second half of this album, many of the songs aren't actually from the "Van Sessions." But they were recorded in similar conditions (with one of them done on a bus instead of a van), and they've the exact same kind of cover versions of hit songs done in an acoustic style.

Note that I didn't include all the songs I could find that fit the format. As I mentioned in the previous post, sometimes the hiss on the recordings was more that I could take, and more than I could fix. But there were only a few of those, luckily. There were more cases where I just didn't feel their cover version was strong, either due to the song or the performance. These two albums are solid through and through, in my opinion.

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 all of the original material, but their covers all sound good, and fun.

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://www.upload.ee/files/15277940/NckiBluhm_2012-2016_VanSssionsPart2_atse.zip.html

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