RANDALL BRAMBLETT
''THE BRIGHT SPOTS''
MAY 14 2013
58:12
1/Roll
Randall Bramblett /3:21
2/Every Saint
Randall Bramblett / Jason Slatton /5:14
3/'Til the Party's All Gone
Randall Bramblett /5:07
4/My Darling One
Randall Bramblett / Jason Slatton /4:54
5/Whatever That Is
Randall Bramblett /4:25
6/John the Baptist
Randall Bramblett /5:19
7/Shine
Randall Bramblett /4:52
8/Trying to Steal a Minute
Randall Bramblett /5:58
9/Detox Bracelet
Randall Bramblett /4:24
10/You Bring Me Down
Randall Bramblett /4:51
11/All Is Well
Randall Bramblett /5:07
12/Rumbling Bridge
Randall Bramblett / Davis Causey /4:40
Isaac Bramblett /Vocals (Background)
Randall Bramblett /Guitar (Acoustic), Keyboards, Saxophone, Vocals
Tom Bukovac /Guitars
Davis Causey /Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Slide Guitar
Betsy Franck /Vocals (Background)
Dylan Hansen /Percussion, Vocals (Background)
Gerry Hansen /Drums, Percussion
Kevin Hyde /Trombone
Nick Johnson /Guitar, Soloist
Adam McKnight /Vocals (Background)
Dan Remel /Vocals (Background)
Michael Rhodes /Bass, Omnichord
Tom Ryan /Sax (Baritone), Sax (Tenor), Vocals (Background)
Jess Scarpone /Vocals (Background)
Michael C. Steele /Bass, Vocals (Background)
REVIEW
by Thom Jurek
Throughout Randall Bramblett's long, storied career as a sideman and as a solo artist, he has doggedly mined the sources of his earliest inspirations -- soul, R&B, blues, and roots rock -- for the lessons they teach about creative expression. As a result, his albums have always moved a little deeper, a little wider, and have taken enough chances with those forms that he's too mercurial to pin down -- he's a marketing person's nightmare, but a real music fan's (and musician's) delight. The Bright Spots, his ninth offering, is at once his loosest and most adventurous studio recording. Bramblett raised $30,000 in a Kickstarter campaign to fund the recording. Seven tunes were recorded with his longtime band and some friends at drummer, co-producer, and engineer Gerry Hansen's studio near Bramblett's home in Athens, Georgia, while the remainder were done with a smaller group in Nashville. The different lineups and locations add a varied, very live-from-the-floor feel (which in fact most of these cuts were), despite the fact that Hansen and Bramblett took some real chances in post-production. One example is on the smoking, midtempo gospel blues "Every Saint," with its canny loop of Pygmy children splashing around in a creek as both intro and backdrop. There are some popping, funky rockers, including opener "Roll," with its stinging guitars, wailing B-3, and punchy horns. The grimy, psych-tinged, gospelized groove of "John the Baptist" (with a killer baritone sax by Tom Ryan and spacy Coral electric sitar by Davis Causey) is a real standout. "Whatever That Is" is swampy, Rhodes-fueled blues, while "Trying to Steal a Minute" is a steamy, nocturnal, suffocatingly close, shuffling funk blues with throbbing bass, big hypnotic shuffling drums, and layered washes of keyboards and guitar. The loop-drenched blues funk in "You Bring Me Down" is forceful for Betsy Franck's gospel wail soaring above the musical fray. The finest moments here are the ballads. Bramblett seems to have been listening to the Mercury-era Rod Stewart records when he wrote the gorgeous love song "My Darling One." The tender, shimmering, poetic "Detox Bracelet," with its lithe keyboards and skittering hi-hat, is his own startling, unique invention. Throughout the record, Bramblett's dusky, soulful voice inhabits his words as if what is portrayed by them is happening in real time, and while the considerable hooks help him there, it's his poignant lyrics that bring him the rest of the way into the center. In this latter area, he's as good -- and as deep -- as virtually anybody. The Bright Spots, while immediately recognizable as a Bramblett album, doesn't sound like anything else in his catalog. It's bold, inventive, colorful, and at times profound.
BIOGRAPHY
by Tim Griggs
Randall Bramblett is an accomplished singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist whose credits include work with Sea Level, Steve Winwood, Gregg Allman, and Robbie Robertson. Bramblett released his third solo album, See Through Me, in 1997, two decades after his previous solo release. During that 20-year period, Bramblett was a member of the Southern jazz fusion group Sea Level and a touring member of the reunited Traffic, as well as a busy studio musician. He was born in Jesup, Georgia, and heavily influenced by R&B music, gospel, blues, and folk. Bramblett plays keyboards, saxophones, guitar, mandolin, and harmonica. His songwriting is often moody and cinematic, as evidenced on albums for New West: 2001's No More Mr. Lucky, 2004's Thin Places, and 2006's Rich Someday. For 2008's Now It's Tomorrow, Bramblett wrote and arranged all the songs. It was the first time in the decade he'd worked without his friend and collaborator Davis Causey. He had written the songs piecemeal before entering the studio -- a first for him. Bramblett's "Useds to Rule the World" appeared as the opening track on Bonnie Raitt's Grammy-winning Slipstream; in 2012 (he also co-wrote "Down to You," with the artist and George Marinelli for that record). He also returned to recording that year. New West issued the all-original The Bright Spots in May of 2013.
MORE BIOGRAPHY
A jewel of Southern music, Randall Bramblett shines on his latest release, The Bright Spots, due out May 14 on New West Records. Fresh off the inclusion of one of his songs on Bonnie Raitt’s Grammy-winning album Slipstream, he has put together a masterful recording soaked with the soulful feel that has defined his music and that of his Southern contemporaries like Gregg Allman and Warren Haynes. From Howlin’ Wolf to Ray Charles and “dark Motown” influences, sitar samples, gospel strains and even a snippet of water-splashing pygmies, The Bright Spots mixes diverse elements that dovetail into Randall’s finest album yet.
Although sometimes associated with the Southern rock scene built around the ’70s-’80s Capricorn label’s core, Randall has never identified with that sound. “Black music is what I grew up loving and the folk scene really hit me too,” he says. “So it’s a combination of Dylan and Ray Charles.”
Elements of pop, soul, blues, and the sounds of the church combine with Randall’s often wistful, beautifully conceived lyrics on these dozen ruminative, roots-based tunes. “Some of the words come from dreams. I do meditations in the morning and write in a journal,” he says. His lyrical strength is mixing unusual thematic concepts with dry humor. That helps explain the album’s upbeat title. “In almost every song there is darkness, yet some thread of humor. The irony of the bright spots is that there is a lot of hurt in these songs and there are the bright spots too. It’s pain and joy simultaneously. There are gifts of desperation.”
That takes the form of the lowdown “Whatever That Is,” his most overtly blues composition, and the sing-along gospel of “Shine,” which sports an anthemic chorus different from anything Bramblett has previously written. “I’ve tried to push the boundaries, but we always follow the song and see what it needs. If the song doesn’t like something, it will tell you.”
With five songs recorded in Nashville and seven more tracked with his long time touring band on his home turf in Athens, GA, the multi-instrumentalist (guitar, keyboards, woodwinds) says his ninth studio release was the easiest and most organic to record. “It felt good and went quickly,” he explains. “It just fell together easily compared to my other records. We did not obsess about this one. A lot of it is live in the studio; we didn’t do a lot of takes or overdubs either.”
Perhaps that’s because the songs come from the experiences accumulated during his extensive career, starting in the ’70s as a member of the jazzy Southern band Sea Level. Add to that a far-reaching resume of work with artists such as Steve Winwood (for 16 years), Gregg Allman, Chuck Leavell, Levon Helm, Widespread Panic, and Gov’t Mule, and the touchstones of Randall’s music emerge. “All these songs came from my life, just feeling that I’m getting a little older and trying to squeeze out a little more time or creativity before it’s too late.”
Having a surfeit of original material to choose from, and highly creative, imaginative musicians in both Nashville and Athens to flesh out the tracks and mold them into bold, soulful statements also helped. “I had 18-20 songs and chose the best 12. As you start recording, you get a feel for where the record is going and it starts to have a life of its own. I have a lot of different styles I can do . . . I like variety but it shouldn’t sound like it’s arbitrary.” As in the past, Bramblett’s dusky, soulful voice and sympathetic backing is unified by the sharp production of veteran shotgun-riding drummer Gerry Hansen. He effortlessly ties the somewhat disparate elements that include short bits of African pygmy children splashing water, and the occasional R&B horn section, together into a cohesive set.
It helps to have high profile fans too. The multi-Grammy winning Raitt has been a Bramblett devotee since the late Stephen Bruton gave her a copy of 2001’s No More Mr. Lucky. She invited Bramblett’s band on the road to open shows and recorded his compositions “God Was in the Water” which appears on the album Souls Alike, and the gutsy “Used To Rule the World” (which has become a focus track) on Slipstream, which in addition to winning Grammy gold has sold more than 300,000 units to date.
The self-effacing artist downplays his previous sideman status, yet is grateful for valuable lessons gained from his work with Gregg Allman (“I learned about organ, vocals and drama through the bluesiness and dynamics of his playing”), watching The Band’s Levon Helm (“his joy of playing freed me up”) and Steve Winwood (“he taught me a lot about organ and melody, working out details and how to create the background beds he was so good at”).
The challenge of composing moving, often emotionally driven songs with words that aim to stir the listener’s feelings has always motivated Bramblett and creates this inspired album. Writing a song is “like playing with the pieces of a puzzle or playing in the sand until you start seeing something,” he asserts.
Despite Bramblett’s antecedents in Americana and specifically Southern music, this is no stroll down the red clay back roads of his youth. The album bridges the past and the present in the loop-driven rhythms of “John the Baptist,” “Trying To Steal a Minute” and the upbeat groove funk of “’Til the Party’s All Gone” as well as the more meditative keyboard based ballad “Detox Bracelet.” Overall The Bright Spots is steeped in soul with a modern edge. “I didn’t want to make a retro record. I like doing something different every time,” he says.
Randall Bramblett continues to push the envelope of his Southern soul into areas that further illuminate his past, while expanding and nudging his roots into the future. The music reflects “a lot of angst, salvation and redemption but it all comes from my experiences,” he concludes. “It’s an honest album that has heart.”
DoWnLoAd
''THE BRIGHT SPOTS''
MAY 14 2013
58:12
1/Roll
Randall Bramblett /3:21
2/Every Saint
Randall Bramblett / Jason Slatton /5:14
3/'Til the Party's All Gone
Randall Bramblett /5:07
4/My Darling One
Randall Bramblett / Jason Slatton /4:54
5/Whatever That Is
Randall Bramblett /4:25
6/John the Baptist
Randall Bramblett /5:19
7/Shine
Randall Bramblett /4:52
8/Trying to Steal a Minute
Randall Bramblett /5:58
9/Detox Bracelet
Randall Bramblett /4:24
10/You Bring Me Down
Randall Bramblett /4:51
11/All Is Well
Randall Bramblett /5:07
12/Rumbling Bridge
Randall Bramblett / Davis Causey /4:40
Isaac Bramblett /Vocals (Background)
Randall Bramblett /Guitar (Acoustic), Keyboards, Saxophone, Vocals
Tom Bukovac /Guitars
Davis Causey /Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Slide Guitar
Betsy Franck /Vocals (Background)
Dylan Hansen /Percussion, Vocals (Background)
Gerry Hansen /Drums, Percussion
Kevin Hyde /Trombone
Nick Johnson /Guitar, Soloist
Adam McKnight /Vocals (Background)
Dan Remel /Vocals (Background)
Michael Rhodes /Bass, Omnichord
Tom Ryan /Sax (Baritone), Sax (Tenor), Vocals (Background)
Jess Scarpone /Vocals (Background)
Michael C. Steele /Bass, Vocals (Background)
REVIEW
by Thom Jurek
Throughout Randall Bramblett's long, storied career as a sideman and as a solo artist, he has doggedly mined the sources of his earliest inspirations -- soul, R&B, blues, and roots rock -- for the lessons they teach about creative expression. As a result, his albums have always moved a little deeper, a little wider, and have taken enough chances with those forms that he's too mercurial to pin down -- he's a marketing person's nightmare, but a real music fan's (and musician's) delight. The Bright Spots, his ninth offering, is at once his loosest and most adventurous studio recording. Bramblett raised $30,000 in a Kickstarter campaign to fund the recording. Seven tunes were recorded with his longtime band and some friends at drummer, co-producer, and engineer Gerry Hansen's studio near Bramblett's home in Athens, Georgia, while the remainder were done with a smaller group in Nashville. The different lineups and locations add a varied, very live-from-the-floor feel (which in fact most of these cuts were), despite the fact that Hansen and Bramblett took some real chances in post-production. One example is on the smoking, midtempo gospel blues "Every Saint," with its canny loop of Pygmy children splashing around in a creek as both intro and backdrop. There are some popping, funky rockers, including opener "Roll," with its stinging guitars, wailing B-3, and punchy horns. The grimy, psych-tinged, gospelized groove of "John the Baptist" (with a killer baritone sax by Tom Ryan and spacy Coral electric sitar by Davis Causey) is a real standout. "Whatever That Is" is swampy, Rhodes-fueled blues, while "Trying to Steal a Minute" is a steamy, nocturnal, suffocatingly close, shuffling funk blues with throbbing bass, big hypnotic shuffling drums, and layered washes of keyboards and guitar. The loop-drenched blues funk in "You Bring Me Down" is forceful for Betsy Franck's gospel wail soaring above the musical fray. The finest moments here are the ballads. Bramblett seems to have been listening to the Mercury-era Rod Stewart records when he wrote the gorgeous love song "My Darling One." The tender, shimmering, poetic "Detox Bracelet," with its lithe keyboards and skittering hi-hat, is his own startling, unique invention. Throughout the record, Bramblett's dusky, soulful voice inhabits his words as if what is portrayed by them is happening in real time, and while the considerable hooks help him there, it's his poignant lyrics that bring him the rest of the way into the center. In this latter area, he's as good -- and as deep -- as virtually anybody. The Bright Spots, while immediately recognizable as a Bramblett album, doesn't sound like anything else in his catalog. It's bold, inventive, colorful, and at times profound.
BIOGRAPHY
by Tim Griggs
Randall Bramblett is an accomplished singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist whose credits include work with Sea Level, Steve Winwood, Gregg Allman, and Robbie Robertson. Bramblett released his third solo album, See Through Me, in 1997, two decades after his previous solo release. During that 20-year period, Bramblett was a member of the Southern jazz fusion group Sea Level and a touring member of the reunited Traffic, as well as a busy studio musician. He was born in Jesup, Georgia, and heavily influenced by R&B music, gospel, blues, and folk. Bramblett plays keyboards, saxophones, guitar, mandolin, and harmonica. His songwriting is often moody and cinematic, as evidenced on albums for New West: 2001's No More Mr. Lucky, 2004's Thin Places, and 2006's Rich Someday. For 2008's Now It's Tomorrow, Bramblett wrote and arranged all the songs. It was the first time in the decade he'd worked without his friend and collaborator Davis Causey. He had written the songs piecemeal before entering the studio -- a first for him. Bramblett's "Useds to Rule the World" appeared as the opening track on Bonnie Raitt's Grammy-winning Slipstream; in 2012 (he also co-wrote "Down to You," with the artist and George Marinelli for that record). He also returned to recording that year. New West issued the all-original The Bright Spots in May of 2013.
MORE BIOGRAPHY
A jewel of Southern music, Randall Bramblett shines on his latest release, The Bright Spots, due out May 14 on New West Records. Fresh off the inclusion of one of his songs on Bonnie Raitt’s Grammy-winning album Slipstream, he has put together a masterful recording soaked with the soulful feel that has defined his music and that of his Southern contemporaries like Gregg Allman and Warren Haynes. From Howlin’ Wolf to Ray Charles and “dark Motown” influences, sitar samples, gospel strains and even a snippet of water-splashing pygmies, The Bright Spots mixes diverse elements that dovetail into Randall’s finest album yet.
Although sometimes associated with the Southern rock scene built around the ’70s-’80s Capricorn label’s core, Randall has never identified with that sound. “Black music is what I grew up loving and the folk scene really hit me too,” he says. “So it’s a combination of Dylan and Ray Charles.”
Elements of pop, soul, blues, and the sounds of the church combine with Randall’s often wistful, beautifully conceived lyrics on these dozen ruminative, roots-based tunes. “Some of the words come from dreams. I do meditations in the morning and write in a journal,” he says. His lyrical strength is mixing unusual thematic concepts with dry humor. That helps explain the album’s upbeat title. “In almost every song there is darkness, yet some thread of humor. The irony of the bright spots is that there is a lot of hurt in these songs and there are the bright spots too. It’s pain and joy simultaneously. There are gifts of desperation.”
That takes the form of the lowdown “Whatever That Is,” his most overtly blues composition, and the sing-along gospel of “Shine,” which sports an anthemic chorus different from anything Bramblett has previously written. “I’ve tried to push the boundaries, but we always follow the song and see what it needs. If the song doesn’t like something, it will tell you.”
With five songs recorded in Nashville and seven more tracked with his long time touring band on his home turf in Athens, GA, the multi-instrumentalist (guitar, keyboards, woodwinds) says his ninth studio release was the easiest and most organic to record. “It felt good and went quickly,” he explains. “It just fell together easily compared to my other records. We did not obsess about this one. A lot of it is live in the studio; we didn’t do a lot of takes or overdubs either.”
Perhaps that’s because the songs come from the experiences accumulated during his extensive career, starting in the ’70s as a member of the jazzy Southern band Sea Level. Add to that a far-reaching resume of work with artists such as Steve Winwood (for 16 years), Gregg Allman, Chuck Leavell, Levon Helm, Widespread Panic, and Gov’t Mule, and the touchstones of Randall’s music emerge. “All these songs came from my life, just feeling that I’m getting a little older and trying to squeeze out a little more time or creativity before it’s too late.”
Having a surfeit of original material to choose from, and highly creative, imaginative musicians in both Nashville and Athens to flesh out the tracks and mold them into bold, soulful statements also helped. “I had 18-20 songs and chose the best 12. As you start recording, you get a feel for where the record is going and it starts to have a life of its own. I have a lot of different styles I can do . . . I like variety but it shouldn’t sound like it’s arbitrary.” As in the past, Bramblett’s dusky, soulful voice and sympathetic backing is unified by the sharp production of veteran shotgun-riding drummer Gerry Hansen. He effortlessly ties the somewhat disparate elements that include short bits of African pygmy children splashing water, and the occasional R&B horn section, together into a cohesive set.
It helps to have high profile fans too. The multi-Grammy winning Raitt has been a Bramblett devotee since the late Stephen Bruton gave her a copy of 2001’s No More Mr. Lucky. She invited Bramblett’s band on the road to open shows and recorded his compositions “God Was in the Water” which appears on the album Souls Alike, and the gutsy “Used To Rule the World” (which has become a focus track) on Slipstream, which in addition to winning Grammy gold has sold more than 300,000 units to date.
The self-effacing artist downplays his previous sideman status, yet is grateful for valuable lessons gained from his work with Gregg Allman (“I learned about organ, vocals and drama through the bluesiness and dynamics of his playing”), watching The Band’s Levon Helm (“his joy of playing freed me up”) and Steve Winwood (“he taught me a lot about organ and melody, working out details and how to create the background beds he was so good at”).
The challenge of composing moving, often emotionally driven songs with words that aim to stir the listener’s feelings has always motivated Bramblett and creates this inspired album. Writing a song is “like playing with the pieces of a puzzle or playing in the sand until you start seeing something,” he asserts.
Despite Bramblett’s antecedents in Americana and specifically Southern music, this is no stroll down the red clay back roads of his youth. The album bridges the past and the present in the loop-driven rhythms of “John the Baptist,” “Trying To Steal a Minute” and the upbeat groove funk of “’Til the Party’s All Gone” as well as the more meditative keyboard based ballad “Detox Bracelet.” Overall The Bright Spots is steeped in soul with a modern edge. “I didn’t want to make a retro record. I like doing something different every time,” he says.
Randall Bramblett continues to push the envelope of his Southern soul into areas that further illuminate his past, while expanding and nudging his roots into the future. The music reflects “a lot of angst, salvation and redemption but it all comes from my experiences,” he concludes. “It’s an honest album that has heart.”
DoWnLoAd
