[Cover photo credit to Noa Azoulay]
As a break from writing and recording her album Avondale Drive (2022) in 2020, Nicki Bluhm and producer Jesse Noah Wilson took a stab at recording songs in the early musical catalog of Cher.
According to Bluhm:
Sometimes it’s nice to take a break from baring your soul and sing someone else’s songs. Selecting those songs, the right ones, can sometimes be as hard as writing one. Interpreting someone else’s words is another nuanced layer to making a cover song resonate as your own.
Choosing from songs predating 1973, Bluhm and Wilson selected their favorites along songs penned by Dan Penn, Spooner Oldham, Albert Hammond, Mike Hazlewood and of course Sonny Bono. They enlisted old friends and new to play and help sing the duets, like Steve Adams, Sam Blasucci of Los Angeles’s Mapache and Nashville neighbor Butch Walker.
Bluhm adds:
I’ve always been one of many admirers of Cher; her sense of fashion and boldness, the many roles she played and won me over with, her deep and sultry voice and most importantly her endless joie de vivre. We had so much fun with these songs, looking back into a history that seemed more romantic and carefree. It was a refreshing way to honor a living legend and some of those who helped her shine along the way.
8 digitally released singles will make up The Beat Goes On, Nicki Bluhm Sings Cher. The first single, title track “The Beat Goes On”, is out now, with a new release every month, finalizing in December. Nicki Bluhm and her band aspire to play a live set in their home of Nashville in the Fall of 2023.
