It’s apropos that DOYLE BRAMHALL’s new Yep Roc CD is titled Is It News because, although they’re absolutely true to his deep roots in the blues, its dozen original tunes mark a turning point that is both ambitious and the logical summation of his artistic evolution. The answer to the forward thinking, envelope-pushing CD’s title is a resounding yes—and the news is all good!
“I wanted to make an all-original record that was big, energetic, intimate, and unpredictable,”Doyle states. “We got a lot of the sounds by pushing everything to the limit and then pulling it back from there.”
Fans already accustomed to Doyle’s high standards and willingness to chart new territory will nonetheless be pleased and surprised at just how high he raises the bar. This instant classic is the benchmark of Bramhall’s storied career—which is saying a lot! Continuing the tradition he started with the songs he co-wrote with Stevie Ray Vaughan, which struck a chord with the biggest audience the blues has ever enjoyed, he deftly expands the idiom’s vocabulary and texture.
Any discussion of Texas blues, be it T-Bone Walker or Stevie Ray, is incomplete without mention of Doyle Bramhall. As singer, songwriter, and drummer, he has been an integral part of that rich state’s music for almost 40 years and, indeed, one of the founding fathers of the blues/roots resurgence synonymous with the Lone Star state and the migration from Dallas to its musical epicenter, Austin. Considering the impact Texas, the state and the state of mind, has had on music around the globe, Bramhall’s importance cannot be overstated.
Growing up in Dallas, his Chessmen opened for Jimi Hendrix in 1968, when Doyle was still in his teens. Moving to Austin with the band’s guitarist, Jimmie Vaughan, the two formed Storm, which Bramhall eventually left to form the Nightcrawlers—this time with Vaughan’s little brother, Stevie Ray. Two Bramhall compositions, “Change It” and “Lookin’ Out The Window,” became linchpins of Stevie’s repertoire, and the pair began a fruitful songwriting collaboration that yielded seven more classics - including “The House Is Rockin’,” “Tightrope” and “Wall of Denial” from In Step, and three tunes from the Vaughan Brothers’ Family Style, which featured Bramhall on drums.
The term legend is bandied about, often in reference to Doyle, but there are few triple-threats as strong—as songwriter, singer (sited by Stevie Ray as his biggest vocal influence), and instrumentalist (blues queen Lou Ann Barton calls him as “the best drummer in the South”). So it was little surprise that his 1994 album, Bird Nest On The Ground, was such a powerful debut. Following that success, he produced critically acclaimed albums by Marcia Ball, Indigenous, and Chris Duarte, while leading
his own rocking band. His follow-up CD, Fitchburg Street, was a heartfelt ode to the blues and R&B he heard during his formative years in Big D—which also happens to be Doyle’s nickname, to differentiate between him and his son, guitar great Doyle Bramhall II.
