Nikki O’Neill

Stories I Only Tell My Friends

Blackbird Records

Nikki O’Neill, an R&B/Americana singer-songwriter and guitarist based in Chicago, is releasing her third solo album, “Stories I Only Tell My Friends”. The album is co-produced by Nikki and Rich Lackowski, and it was recorded mostly live with her five-piece band. The album was engineered by John Abbey at the Kingsize Sound Labs in Chicago. The album’s making was largely supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, who chose Nikki as one of their 2025 recipients.

Nikki was born in Los Angeles but grew up in Stockholm, Sweden with a Polish mother and Russian grandmother. Both of them and her father, grew up with war and had a history of moving from one country and one apartment to another. Music was her mom’s source of joy, and she loved listening to various artists including Dinah Washington, Al Green, Santana, Stevie Wonder, John Lennon and The Traveling Wilbury’s. Nikki states she soaked it up like a sponge. She started writing songs at the age of twelve and first picked up the guitar at sixteen. She loved Prince’s “Purple Rain” and Sly and The Family Stone. She loved that were leaders of multi-racial bands that fused soul and rock n’ roll.

After self-releasing her 2017 EP “Love Will Lead You Home”, she regularly performed around L.A. where she met and married Lackowski, and was signed to the Blackbird Record Label. In October of 2020 she released her label debut the “World is Waiting”.
With touring opportunities erased by the pandemic, and California becoming unaffordable, they packed up their car and drove to Lackowski’s hometown of Chicago. The inspiration Nikki found is expressed in “Stories I Only Tell My Friends”.

The opening track “Drive” is also the first single to be released from the album, and I immediately fell in love with Nikki’s beautiful voice a she sings “your lust for life’s too big for this town, childhood friends have all settled down, making small-talk about sensible dreams, you take the wheel and you take a long breath, staying here would mean a long, slow death, you’re the rebel in your family…you were born to move, too curious and fine tuned to turn a blind eye, there’s no prize for standing still, so go and feel the thrill of being alive, the road awaits, so drive”.

“Rainbow In The Cloud”, “there’s a rainbow in the clouds just for me…there’s a blues in my heart that sets me free…then you call and life becomes alright…a little grey won’t matter to me…there’s a rainbow in the clouds just for me” Guitarist Chris Corsale takes a solo as he sings the backing vocal. On “Live Like You’ve Just Begun” Nikki chimes “our road ends here and we both know, that you’re gonna change direction, we grew apart, we took our turns, from denial to reflection, now with our minds made up, and your things all packed on the moving truck, you stand tall, but we both let out a sigh, don’t get down by what we’ve been through, celebrate where it brought me and you, and don’t let this chance pass you by…breathe in the sky, take a walk in the sun, live like you’ve just begun, sing a song like you’ve found a favorite one, live like you’ve just begun.”

“I Just Knew” includes more great organ from Myers, and a guitar solo from Nikki, as she chants “it was a question what I do…I just knew”, another optimistic song. “I Wish The Sun Could Shine On Me” features Corsale on rhythm, as Nikki again solos. “L.A. In The Morning (Every Time), “we go round, it’s L.A. in the morning where we get our lucky break, every time”. “If I Got The Upper Hand”, features the lyric “some people climb up ladders …should I spend my time with him…some people never change…If I got the upper hand, should I spend my time with him, would I find my way”. “A Space To Dream” follows.

On “Candy Apple Morning” Nikki croons “open the blinds, invite the light in, I start making tea in the kitchen, butter on bread, the paper unread, the first bird greets the sun and I listen, some stay up late, love the dark to create, come alive when the lights are low, I’d rather engage when the day’s a blank page, that’s when I find my flow, open the blinds, let the light in, there’s cardamom tea in the kitchen, got paper and pen, you never know when the first note comes alive and I listen”. “Square One” once again includes Nikki with a guitar solo and organ from Myers, “the music’s just begun in square one”. The closer “Newcomer Blues” features Nikki solo “I’m travelin’ with the newcomer blues…my faith is in my hands… I breathe air and I got a heartbeat too, I’m made just like you, they called me a capitalist because of my English, I breathe air and I got a heartbeat too, my faith is in my hands”.

The inspiration Nikki O’Neill felt after moving to Chicago is firmly expressed in “Stories I Only Tell My Friends”. The interweaving of Soul, Americana, Rock, Gospel and Blues is an integral part of O’Neill’s sound. She’s a songwriter of merit, who could ask for for more?

Richard Ludmerer

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