Doyle Bramhall - Fitchburg Street (2003)

> The album 

SRV risen from the dead ? No, his mentor Doyle Bramhall !

Miracle ! Stevie Ray was not dead ! Not in 2003 in any case. Isn't it his voice and his good old Stratocaster on this album ? Of course not, but the similarities are puzzling. I am grateful to Lou Cypher, from Blue Dragon, for drawing my attention on the fact that originally it was not Bramhall who was influenced by SRV, but the contrary.
Doyle Bramhall is closely linked  to SRV : he played with him, he wrote songs for him, and both Dallas-born knew each other from their teens because Bramhall was close to SRV's elder brother Jimmie Vaughan. Actually, in the 1970s, in Austin, Bramhall and Jimmie took young Stevie Ray first as bass player in their band Texas Storm, then as the lead guitarist of their Nightcrawlers. In these years SRV got his vocal style from Bramhall, and more generally the distinctive sound that sticks like a trademark on his whole discography.

"Fitchburg Street", named from the West Dallas road where Bramhall spent his youth, is his second solo album, nine years after "Bird Nest on the Ground" in 1994. It's a rich, strong, typically contemporary Texas blues work featuring mostly covers of old blues and soul material revisited through this special "Bramhall sound" that influenced SRV so much.
Half the tracks are borrowed from bluesmen like John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Reed and Howlin' Wolf, or from less famous authors (read below). Only one song is co-signed by Bramhall : the famous "Life By The Drop", originally written for SRV and featured in a more acoustic version on "The Sky Is Crying", revisited here as a solid electric song.

John Lee Hooker's "Dimples" opens the album in a heavy mid-tempo version that shows again how much the Bramhall sound inspired SRV. The outstanding "Changes", a Buddy Miles song recorded by Hendrix' Band of Gypsys, is a great tribute to Hendrix (like SRV did with his version of "Voodoo Chile") : great voice, great sound, great guitar by Bramhall's son, Doyle Bramhall II, and Pat Boyack  !
Bramhall and his casting of excellent fellow musicians revisit with his special style some soul material like "I'd Rather Be (Blind, Crippled & Crazy)", originally recorded by O.V. Wright, and "That's How Strong My Love Is", or blues like Jimmy Reed's "Baby What You Want Me To Do", " It Ain't No Use", and the second Hooker cover, "Maudie", again featuring a good lead guitar by Pat Boyack. The last two tracks are Howlin'Wolf's classics, "Fourty Four" and "Sugar (Where'd You Get Your Sugar From) " always stamped with that same Bramhall sound brand.

Apart from Bramhall himself, drummer and producer of this opus, and his excellent guitar wizard of a son, the other "star" of this album is indeed that full solid heavy sound put out by the band in its different configurations, a sound that Bramhall with his long time accomplice Jimmie Vaughan, contributed greatly to forge. So you can bet he knows all about producing this "new" Texas blues sound, popularized by SRV, and so much imitated nowadays.
Unfortunately Bramhall died of heart failure in 2010, at 62, twenty years after his famous "disciple" who brought the "Bramhall sound" to summits.

Who wrote what
01 - Dimples : James. Bracken/John Lee Hooker
02 - I'd Rather Be (Blind, Crippled & Crazy) : Charles Hodges/Darryl Carter/Overton Vertis Wright
03 - Changes : G. A. Miles a.k.a Buddy Miles
04 - Life By The Drop : Barbara Logan/Doyle Bramhall
05 - That's How Strong My Love Is : Roosevelt Jamison
06 - Baby What You Want Me To Do : Jimmy Reed
07 - It Ain't No Use : Dan Hollinger/Gary Levone Anderson a.k.a Gary U.S. Bonds/Jerry Williams Jr aka Swamp Dogg.
08 - Maudie : John Lee Hooker
09 - Fourty Four : Chester Burnett a.k.a Howlin' Wolf
10 - Sugar (Where'd You Get Your Sugar From) : Chester Burnett a.k.a Howlin' Wolf

Who played what
- Vocals, Drums, Percussion : Doyle Bramhall (all #)
- Drums : Chris Hunter (# 2, 8)
- Bass : Jim Milan, Mike Judge (# 1, 3, 9), Roscoe Beck (# 2, 4, 8, 10)
- Guitar, Bass : Robin Syler (# 10)
- Acoustic Guitar : Rick Rawls (# 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8)
- Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar : Tom Reynolds (# 4)
- Rhythm Guitar :  Dave Sebree (# 4, 10)
- Guitar : Doyle Bramhall II (# 1, 3, 5, 9), Pat Boyack (# 2, 8), Dru Webber (# 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8), Johnny Peebles (# 5)
- Bodhrán : Dave Ferman (# 3)
- Harmonica : Gary Primich (# 1, 10)
- Keyboards : Lewis Stephens, Riley Osbourn (# 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8)
- Piano : Lewis Stephens (# 5), Riley Osbourn (# 7, 8, 9)
- Tenor Saxophone : Paul Klemperer
- Trumpet : Wayne Jackson
- Backing Vocals (# 2) : Susanne Abbott & Tina Rosenzweig

Videos
> At the Beale Street Music Festival in Memphis, 1996 (67mn) - Doyle Bramhall : vocals, drums / Zonder Kennedy : guitar / Riley Osborne : keyboardss / Jim Milan : bass - featuring Andrew Love (tenor sax) & Wayne Jackson (trumpet) from The Memphis Horns: https://youtu.be/5Dp3PQkT030 -
> Doyle Bramhall (drums) with Casper Rawls (Fender Telecaster), Nick Curran (Gretch), Scott Nelson (bass) at Blues on the Green in Austin, 2008 (61mn): https://youtu.be/HxbL-poAask
> Doyle Bramhall, Robin Sylar (guitar) and Mike Judge (bass) at Schooners, in Dallas, 1991: https://youtu.be/apQqMhkTNxE
> Doyle Bramhall, Casper Rawls, Jim Milan and Mike Keller at the Fort Worth Main Street Arts Festival, in 2011: https://youtu.be/v_swMDd5hAk
> Doyle Bramhall & band at the Vancouver Island Musicfest 2005 : https://youtu.be/OarYtW9dsT4 & https://youtu.be/l7RCm-gL02E