By Jim Bille / Houston Music Review
With the show that Indigenous was cranking out Friday it’s hard to believe that the crowd’s energy level could intensify but it actually rose to a higher plain when Nanji introduced Doyle Bramhall to the stage. Bramhall, who can be considered a Texas music legend by now, took over the drums and proceeded to thrill the crowd with his too cool brand of Texas soul singing and dominating drum back-beat. The Houston show was the first of three he’s to play with Indigenous in Texas that will include Dallas and Austin dates as well.
A few of Bramhall’s musical gifts Friday night included ‘Early One Mornin’, ‘Bad Boy’ and ‘Shape I’m In’.
The crowd would have no part of Doyle’s leaving the stage when his set was supposed to be over. The encore crazy audience coaxed Bramhall back on to accompany the band on a white hot version of the Jimi Hendrix classic ‘Red House’ featuring Mato Nanji on unworldly lead guitar and vocals.
Bramhall’s resume reads like a recent history book of Texas blues music. During his thirty plus year career he’s played with The Chessmen and Storm along with Jimmie Vaughan, Mark Benno and the Nightcrawlers featuring Stevie Ray Vaughan, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Anson Funderburgh, Rocky Hill and The Juke Jumpers. He even played a stint with one of my favorite Houston based blues gang The Coldcuts as well as fronting his own band. He wrote or co-wrote many of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s best music.
Doyle Bramhall has a new CD due out this fall following up on his first two solo album releases, Birds Nest on the Ground and Fitchburg Street. More great music on it’s way from a true Texas musical son.

Doyle Bramhall 1949 – 2011

By Traci Rogers / Houston Music Review

The Blues world lost a Texas legend Sunday. Doyle Bramhall, 62, had recently contracted pneumonia, but official causes remain unknown at this time.

Bramhall got his early music start playing with the band The Chessmen alongside Stevie Ray Vaughan’s older brother Jimmie; he then performed with the band Texas Storm. He also collaborated with fellow blues legends Melvin Taylor, Brian Setzer, Marcia Ball and his son, guitarist Doyle Bramhall, II (junior has played with Eric Clapton, Roger Waters and Arc Angels).

The smokey-voiced drummer was nominated for a Grammy in 2007 for his Is it News album, his third solo release.   However, it was his 1994 Antone’s release Bird Nest on the Ground that carries with it an anecdote, spanning about 14 years. Houston’s Blues aficionado, Nuri Nuri of 90.1/KPFT’s Sunday Blues Brunch tells:

“The making of Bird Nest on the Ground began in 1980, but wasn’t released until 1994. Bramhall   wrote the cut “Too Sorry” for Stevie [SRV], but Stevie would break into uncontrollable laughter each time they attempted a recording of it.   After so many attempts, Bramhall finally realized he would have to sing the song. The album demonstrates the strong influence he had on Stevie’s singing style.”

Bramhall told Austin Chronicle’s Margaret Moser in 2003 that he finally began working on the album in 1994 at Stevie’s posthumous urging. Bramhall said, “It kept ringing in my head . . .I could feel him pushing me, ‘Do it, do it.’” So Bird Nest was born with the help of the late SRV and brother Jimmie’s earlier recordings. Also, bassist/cartoonist Mike Judge (King of the Hill) and son Doyle Bramhall II join in for a jam session or two.

Once Austin’s music scene got word of the legend’s passing, performers Mike Flanigin, Denny Freeman, Homer Henderson, Gary Clark, Jr., and many others took part in an impromptu celebration of Bramhall’s life and career at Austin’s Continental Club Sunday night.

Funeral services will be held Monday at 2:30 at the Weed-Corley-Fish Funeral home in Austin.

Nuri Nuri laments, “I will miss his music, his talent, songwriting, drumming and musicianship. He was one of the few drummers who mastered the Texas shuffle. He was very warm and generous with his audiences and friends. He was never short on giving his fans time. If you wanted a picture or autograph, he took his time to give it to you. He was a people person, and I am going to miss him immensely.”

“I look back on it and think, ‘I’ve seen some damn good times,’ “Bramhall told Moser. His 2003 prophetic remark to the Austin reporter, “Breakfast with Jimi Hendrix, lunch with Keith Moon and dinner with Janis Joplin,” is now a reality.

Farewell, Doyle Bramhall.