Jennifer Niceley - Luminous (2007)

"Niceley's impressive Billie Holiday-inspired vocal style has earned her critical praise in Music City. Her vocals are sultry, seductive, and hypnotically filled with the heavy themes of love, sacrifice, nostalgia, and identity...To be sure, there's much more than potential in this brilliant creation from Jennifer Niceley. Produced by her guitarist and kindred spirit Joe McMahan, the record features Niceley's sultry vocals prominently, and is peppered with jazzy dissonant guitar solos (Joe McMahan), while beautifully arranged strings (Chris Carmichael) ebb and flow throughout the record. The pace is purposefully slow, creating reflective moods and tranquil landscapes complemented by compelling narratives.."
(Vincent Wayne, ListenNashville, 9/07)

"A poetic record that never sounds pretentious, Luminous incorporates dissonant guitars, swaying strings and pregnant pauses, and recalls the fat, live sound of an early-’60s blues record. It takes a special talent to retool Don Robey and Joe Scott’s “Blind Man”— rendered by Bobby Bland on his 1964 Ain’t Nothing You Can Do LP, and later covered by Little Milton and Traffic—as “Blind Woman,” but Niceley’s version is a bluesy slow drag that might be the record’s triumph. When she sings, “I’m living in a world of darkness / But that don’t bother me,” it’s heroic, crazy and thrilling."
(Edd Hurt, Nashville Scene, 9/07)