San Francisco-based vocalist Nicki Bluhm has built a career making music steeped in country, R&B, and blues-infused rock, both as a solo act and with her band the Gramblers. Bluhm's vocal style is impassioned but well-modulated, possessing a soulful expressiveness born of a knack for bringing out the natural emotions of her songs. Her career began in earnest when she co-founded the band the Gramblers with her then-husband Tim Bluhm, of the Mother Hips. Her first two albums with the group, Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers (2012) and Loved Wild Lost (2015), were confident, expressive efforts that quickly won them a loyal following. When Nicki and Tim broke up, she went solo with 2018's deeply personal To Rise You Gotta Fall, while 2022's Avondale Drive saw her picking up the pieces and moving forward with her life.