Doyle Bramhall's Lone Star Soul

Soul rolls off Doyle Bramhall's music like sugar burnt brown. It comes from a place so natural it feels like breathing. But Bramhall's voice, cured in blues and spiced by a well-spent life, can now take its place alongside his many inspirations: Bobby "Blue" Bland, Junior Parker, O.V. Wright, Ray Charles and a history book full of others. He has hit that spot where all his years of playing and listening come together in a glorious album of musical grace. In fact, it feels like his whole life has been spent on the road to Fitchburg Street.

It's no coincidence that's the name of Doyle Bramhall's new album on YepRoc Records. In many ways, the ten songs on the new release are both a powerful summation of all the music the Texas singer-drummer-songwriter has spent his life playing, as well as a striking stance for his future.

"I was born on Fitchburg Street in West Dallas in 1949," Doyle Bramhall explains. "That was also where my music started. My family loved to listen to music and dance. My Uncle Lloyd played harmonica in big bands in Dallas. Some of my earliest memories of Fitchburg Street are watching my mom, Aunt Helen and sister Shirley dance to the pop tunes of the day in the early 1950s."

In speaking about his beginnings, it's quickly clear how big an impact they had on the young Bramhall. It was a wide-open town and time, and West Dallas, also known as the Devil's Back Porch, was home to Bonnie and Clyde and a whole host of other strong characters. "We had a large family," he says, "and on Sundays, my brother Dale and I would sing at my grandmother's house for relatives and neighbors. I remember getting a nickel once after singing and thinking, 'I like this.' Dale and I were 5 or 6 at the time.

"Later on, living in Irving a few miles northwest of West Dallas, my older brother Ronnie and four or five of his high school friends would get together at our house and listen to all these great R&B and blues records by Howlin' Wolf, Memphis Slim, Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, Lightnin' Hopkins, Ray Charles, Lightnin' Slim and a lot of others. They wouldn't let us in the room because we were young, 11 or 12 at the time. So Dale and I would sit outside of his bedroom and listen. That music would totally grab me, and as soon as Ronnie went off to college, luckily he left a lot of his records. Dale and I took over his room and I haven't stopped listening since."

It wasn't too long after the inspired tutelage from his older brother that Doyle and Dale Bramhall took their initial step onto the bandstand with their first band the Cobras. For the next five years, and other groups like the Nitrons, the Chessmen (with fellow Dallas musician, guitarist Jimmie Vaughan) and Texas, Doyle played a wide range of soul and rock, leading to that time when he could come full circle and devote himself to his first love: blues. In a sort of perfect storm of musical convergence, Bramhall, Vaughan and a host of other Dallas players had moved to Austin to start a new group. The town, and the musicians involved, would never be the same after the arrival of Storm.

Storm quickly became an incredibly influential band on the state capital's music scene. Holding down a Monday night slot at the downtown dive the One Knite, it became obvious from their following that blues had an strong audience among the students and bohemians in Austin, and put out the word that the town was welcoming musicians with a strong blues bent. It wasn't long before players from around the state and beyond descended on Austin as a mecca for live music.

The Seventies were a wild ride for Doyle Bramhall. From Storm, the singer segued into Marc Benno and the Nightcrawlers, which included the younger Vaughan brother Stevie on guitar. An album recorded for A&M Records was never released, and Bramhall returned to Dallas in the mid-'70s to play with Lightnin' Hopkins and Anson Funderburgh and later Rocky Hill (brother of ZZ Top's bassist Dusty Hill) in Houston, recording an album for Elektra Records. Eventually starting a band called the Millionaires with two old friends in Dallas, Bramhall took a few turns peforming with Houston group the Coldcuts before he joined Lou Ann Barton's handpicked band to promote her debut album, Old Enough. The tour was cut short almost as soon as it started, and Bramhall found himself backing singer-guitarist Mason Ruffner on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. After a quick detour back to Fort Worth, Doyle Bramhall began a four-year run as Marcia Ball's drummer in 1984. Near the end of the '80s, he finally decided to concentrate more on his own songwriting and performing, having had considerable success co-writing songs with Stevie Ray Vaughan for Vaughan's multi-platinum albums. Bramhall's first solo effort, Bird Nest On The Ground, was released on Antone's Records in 1994 and became the label's biggest selling album. When it came time to begin Fitchburg Street, the West Dallas-born Bramhall was more than ready to gather the best players in Texas at Austin's Hit Shack studio to try and top his previous collection, including musicians like Gary Primich, Casper Rawls, Riley Osbourn, Mike Judge (yes, the "Beavis and Butthead" creator who played in groups with Bramhall over a decade ago), Roscoe Beck, Doyle Bramhall II and Wayne Jackson.

Choosing songs recorded by John Lee Hooker, O.V. Wright, Buddy Miles, Otis Redding, Howlin' Wolf, Erma Franklin, and Z.Z. Hill was an easy decision for the singer. "The majority of the songs I covered for this album are songs sung by artists who have influenced my singing style, and really, my musical style in general," he reflects. "I've performed these songs for most of my career, and my fans kept requesting through the years that I record them."

And there is also included a special song written by Bramhall and wife Barbara Logan originally for Stevie Ray Vaughan. "In September 1990, soon after Stevie died, I realized that 'Life By The Drop' needed to be recorded and I thought someone like Bonnie Raitt might be interested in doing it, so I asked Tom Reynolds, a friend of mine and a fine guitar player, if he would record a demo with me. So we went in to a funky home studio and cut the track. I gave the demo to someone who could get it to Bonnie, but never heard back. About 1991-92, I was visiting my son Doyle II in Austin and we were listening to tapes. He said, 'Dad, you've heard Stevie's version of "Life By The Drop," right?' And I said, 'No, I never knew he recorded it.' I couldn't listen to the whole thing; it was just too emotional for me.

"In 1993, when I was putting Bird Nest together, we had tried to include 'Life By The Drop,' but my demo version was too badly recorded and pieces seemed to be missing so we gave up. Earlier this year, getting ready for the new album, we did tape transfers of the song onto Pro Tools, and found 'Drop' in its whole form. We were able to fix a lot of what was just a bad recording--as the engineer said, 'it's a high resolution mix to a very low resolution recording'--and include it, finally, on Fitchburg Street."

Having "Life By The Drop," and all the other music of Doyle Bramhall's life, on this new recording is the summation of one of the Lone Star state's strongest singers in his finest hour. For Bramhall, the musical goal has never changed: "Making the best music I can for as long as I can, and hope if you stick around long enough you come back in style." Fitchburg Street, finally, is coming into style.