Top-class vocals and production complement finely crafted personal lyrics of love, loss and hope from UK-born now Nashville-based artist.
One of the joys in reviewing albums for Americana UK is that moment when you first play a new release, and it’s a “wow, I love this” moment from that first listen. And so it is with Danni Nicholls’ new release, Making Moves, which dazzles from the outset. Nicholls’ voice is rich and smooth, and always perfectly placed in the arrangements of her songs, with top-notch musicianship and vibrant production throughout.
Nicholls hails from Bedford, England, and has been nominated three times for Americana Music Association UK awards, but is now based in what she regards as her spiritual home, Nashville, following a chance encounter with Nashville producer and bassist Chris Donohue (Emmylou Harris), which led to the making of her albums A Little Redemption (2012) and Mockingbird Lane (2015) featuring top Nashville players including Al Perkins, Will Kimbrough, and Steve Fishell. Her third studio album, The Melted Morning (2019), was a more stripped-back release produced by Jordan Brooke Hamlin (Brandi Carlile, Indigo Girls), but with Making Moves, she has returned to a full Nashville band sound, produced by Sarah Peacock. In addition to Nicholls on vocals and acoustic guitar the main credits are: Joshua Grange (electric and baritone guitars, pedal steel, keys), Lex Price (bass guitar), Chris Benelli (drums & percussion), and Brian Sutherland (cello), with additional credits to Nicholls (alto saxophone), Anne Marie Kirby (violin & viola), and Stephen Leiweke (marxophone and banjo).
Sharing equal top billing with Nicholls’ classy vocals and top production are her melodies and lyrics, which are open and honest on the delights and disappointments she finds in love, at the same time, both personal and relatable. I Want You, a co-write with Robby Hecht, is a soulful ballad with echoes of Sam Cooke, Nicholls singing to an uncertain partner “My arms are waiting for you/ So darling don’t be scared/ No you don’t have to worry/ Im not going anywhere … Don’t you know by now/ I want you in the early morning/ I want you on my unmade bed/ I want you without warning/ I want you babe oh I want you.”
In the first single release from the album, The Wreckage, co-written with Kyshona Armstrong, Nicholls shares the readiness with which she falls in love “My love is a fire/ It burns without knowing/ That even the wildest flames can be quelled/It’s a virtue it’s a sin/ I can’t resist I want to jump right in/ The fire knows me well”, while Honey (co-written with Claire Kelly), a mid tempo rocker tells of the aftermath of a relationship where the promises made prove all too false “So I’m having a funeral/ For the plans that we made/ For the life that we could’ve had/ If you’d have been brave/He’s more appealing/He’s the safer choice/ Thanks for using me to find out/ You still prefer boys/ I should’ve seen it coming but I was too busy loving you/ I didn’t believe you… /I didn’t believe you when you showed me who you were/ But I sure believed you when you whispered those words/ You must’ve been lying/ You were lying right next to me/ Pouring honey in my ear… /And fucking up my dreams.”
In ‘Making Moves’, a sensitive ballad with acoustic guitar and piano, and atmospheric pedal steel Nicholls is returning to the part of town where her ex still lives, with a strong dose of unease, “Cause I’m not your baby anymore /You’re charming someone new in our old haunts/ When I see you it’s a matter of time/ Part of me thinks I’ll smile/ Part of me thinks I’ll die.”
I’ll Carry On, co-written with Michele Stodart, strikes a positive tone: “I won’t let the dark of night hold on so tight/ Even the smallest light will find a way inside/ Change is bound to come/ When another day is done I’ll carry on”, with a wonderful choir outro.
Hope is her theme for the album closer Well Enough Alone, looking forward to self-determination, Nicholls singing “I’m gonna choose something new/ Gonna see myself through and take my time /Take away the choice to follow someone else’s voice /I know my mind/ Oh I feel it in my bones/I’m well enough alone”. This is the best album of 2026 so far, one which is getting regular repeat plays.
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