Bentley’s Bandstand: August 2024
By Bill Bentley
Randall Bramblett, PARADISE BREAKDOWN. There really aren’t many blue-eyed soul brothers as strong as Randall Bramblett. He has been writing and recording songs for his never-ending solo career for 50 years, always surprising listeners with a deep-seated ability to strike a new ability to go right to the center of the heart. It’s not an easy task, especially to keep the level of accomplishment at such a never-ending way to become airborne. This is a man who doesn’t miss. He lives at the edge of American roots music, without ever repeating himself or losing his altitude. There is something surely regal about Randall Bramlett’s songs, like he knows the high road is best for him, and doesn’t dip below the line for cheap thrills. Maybe that’s the reason that soul’s queen bee Bettye LaVette recorded an entire album of the man’s songs last year, and was nominated for a Grammy for the endeavor. On PARADISE BREAKDOWN, there is something slightly cosmic about these songs, like the man has been floating around the stratosphere collecting ideas and inspiration in a way that allows him to accomplish songwriting abilities that others haven’t found quite yet. Add on Randall Bramblett’s voice, one that captures a sound that marks him as a total individual, and it’s easy to see why he’s been able to record 13 albums, and been tagged by Rolling Stone magazine as “one of the South’s most lyrical and literate songwriters.” No one in the modern firmament of American songwriters has found such a lauded and secure spot in his world quite like this man has. Probably because he has such an innate quality of depth and definition in songs like “We Had It All the Time,” “Somewhere in the Sky” and “Will I Ever See the Day” that he really does get to travel his own road. Party of one.
John Cale, POPTICAL ILLUSION. Without doubt, John Cale lives in the highest area of royalty in rock & roll, partially because he isn’t really a rock & roller. He’s a man of many gifts, starting before he ever entered the Velvet Underground with Lou Reed to kickstart that unequaled air of individualism, and the way he puts the gifts together is nothing short of astounding. His classical and avant-garde musical backgrounds put him literally in a class by himself, and on POPTICAL ILLUSION, Cale has even outdone himself. Which is saying something. This is music to constantly take the breath away, conjuring up a world where absolute astonishment walks in the door and stays. Really. John Cale has a way of taking listeners on a trip to another consciousness, one that doesn’t need to be explained. Because it can’t be. Instead, the audio dimension of life becomes something that takes the breath away, while Cale himself keeps his cool right into the outre zone. Songs like “God Made Me Do It,” “How We See the Light,” “Shark-Shark” and more have a way of crawling inside consciousness, and making the world itself expand into a place without boundaries. There is simply no place like it. Several of Cale’s previous albums defined a new style of popular music, no matter how popular it became, and proved that humans need not live with sonic boundaries. Better to let the soul go where it wants and hold on for the ride. From his VINTAGE VIOLENCE solo debut on through last year’s MERCY is a history of fantabulism that is equaled by very few. Now even that list is upped through the sky into a place that will live forever. This is a sound that won’t be bested, no matter if it is given a true hero’s welcome or not. Big time fairy dust has been sprinkled all over these amazing songs by one of the best friends this music has ever had. The world expands.
Quinn DeVeaux, LEISURE. Once or twice a year an album appears which is able to totally capture the past as well as represent the present, and even throw in a touch of the future. That is what Quinn DeVeaux’s LEISURE does. It’s a breathtaking release that doesn’t quite sound like anything else, but pulls a listener in with a sure-handed sense of soul. Quinn DeVeaux is from Gary, Indiana, but struck out on his own search for a new life where he first encountered the music of bluesman Muddy Waters. After that has been a deep dive into all kinds of blues and soul along with touches of early rock & roll. The present result of this musical pursuit is now an individual sound that lets DeVeaux choose just where he wants to explore. The man’s sound is filled with love, loss and good luck. There are very few musicians now who can concoct a sound like this musician can. It is obvious that soul music has been deeply embedded in his spirit, but also that Quinn DeVeaux is seeking his own sound, a feeling that impacts the deepest part of the heart and offers hope for the future. The way he is able to fashion just such a feeling is exactly what gives music its never-ending promise. It only takes one song to hear the hope that fuels this music. Songs like “Very Best Thing” and “You Got Soul” come from a place that not many modern artists can reach with such dexterity. But that’s because DeVeaux obviously understands that music is not a part-time affair. It’s all in for those who are in it for the eternal gifts that great songs offer, those sounds that can stand tall with past achievements at the same time they are offering the fulfillment of a future achievement. Quinn DeVeaux knows.
Stephen Doster, A PASSING TRAIN: A COMPILATION. It’s a bluebonnet-fact that Austin is a music town, and has been for over 50 years when the word got out there were over a dozen clubs booking bands of all persuasions, apartments were fifty dollars a month and beer was three quarts for a dollar. And peyote buttons were free for the picking two hours away near the Mexico border. The next thing everyone knew was that blues bands could get weekend jobs, there was a new music style called Cosmic Cowboy sweeping the town and another few dozen music rooms were opening up. Austin was born. Stephen Doster is one of the city’s shining artists who proves that Austin found greatness. He is a songwriter of infinite talents, and is willing to stand on his merits and stick to his guns. Doster has made several albums, and on A PASSING TRAIN he has gathered two dozen songs from past sessions and bundled them together in a mind-altering collection. If there has ever been any doubt that this man is one of Austin’s finest artists, A PASSING TRAIN will prove it true. Seven different producers each handle an amalgamation of songs, everyone from Will Sexton, the Pretenders’ James Honeyman-Scott, Jay Aaron Podolnick, Doster himself and others, and the results are unforgettable. The styles swing from unrelenting rock to the kind of songs that break the heart on the first verse. Stephen Doster is someone who will hopefully last forever, creating songs that remind all what it means to be a human with a big heart. Bluebonnet plague passion.
Joe Ely, DRIVEN TO DRIVE. There are Texans, and then there are Texans. On the music front, Joe Ely really does inhabit his own place. Though he first came to attention as one of the Flatlanders in the early 1970s, there was something solitary about Ely. The way he looked at the world had a touch of loneliness about it, almost like the young man was always searching for a place where he could alight on his own. Some people find that aloneness to make their stand, and never look down once they take off on their own trip. The passion and power of Joe Ely’s songs gain a lot of their strength from his ability to move alone. Even when he had one of the most flat-out strongest bands in the land, Ely still was running down the line without looking for help. It has been a total history of wonder the way the man has laid his own tracks, even when in the middle of a group of musicians who could hold up the world. It has always seemed that people like that don’t have a choice in the journey they’re on. It’s just how they are. Which makes DRIVEN TO DRIVE so absolutely compelling. There simply isn’t anyone else who can achieve what Joe Ely does on an even dozen doozies like these songs. It sounds like he’s leading a massive parade down Austin’s Congress Avenue all alone. There is such a strength of will right in the core of songs like “Drivin’ Man,” “For Your Love” and “Gulf Coast Blues” that the power of the music is a foregone conclusion: There will be no way anything but greatness is achieved here. Joe Ely is one of those musicians who can walk in a room full of known items, and somehow the spotlight finds him and stays there. It is the sound of charisma coming alive no matter where he is. And when he starts singing it’s a foregone conclusion that Ely will not be topped. That’s not the way he’s built. Instead, a certain magic is unleashed in his sound, like he’s pulled down a West Texas dust storm and unleashed it on the audience. It is a certainty that this is someone who doesn’t miss, even when it can’t be quite explained how he does it. DRIVEN TO DRIVE is the kind of album that after only one listen it’s clear something has landed on earth that is meant to be here, and takes all those within earshot to a place of wowness. It is its own world. One for all.
Nick Gravenites with Pete Sears, ROGUE BLUES. There is a good chance that most people have not heard of Nick Gravenites, but when push comes to pull the Chicago singer-songwriter is one of the more influential characters of the 1960s. Gravenites was on the electric blues scene in the Windy City at the start of the ’60s, and with Paul Butterfield and Michael Bloomfield they spent their learning years in the South Side blues world where Muddy Waters, Howiln’ Wolf, Little Walter and a whole roll call of other blues giants inspired him. Gravenites was the central poobah of the lot, someone who carved in stone solidity about what made that area and era great. He wrote the Butterfield Blues Band’s theme song “Born in Chicago,” formed the Electric Flag with Bloomfield when the guitar king bailed on the Butterfield band and went on to write songs for Janis Joplin and others, while becoming the living conscience for the entire crew. Nick Gravenites was someone not to be taken lightly. His voice had an authority to it, but also a certain sweetness that was rarely equaled. He always called it like he saw it, and has outlived almost all of his contemporaries. This new album is a downhome joy, one with six of the man’s moving originals joined by album opener staple “Poor Boy” from Howlin’ Wolf. With musician/co-producer Pete Sears on board as a right-hand man, the sound of everything is solid and real. One of Nick Gravenites’ finest strengths is how he always sounded just like he was, with no affectations or uptown jive. The man called them as he saw them, and stood up for the sounds that changed the world, one he had helped form back in the earliest days of young white Chicagoans heading for the real thing. There won’t be another, and in many ways there was only one at the start. This is the real deal, with nothing rogue about it. Do not miss.
MEMPHIS ROYAL BROTHERS. There are sacred places in certain cities, and in Memphis, Tennessee one of those places is surely Royal Studio on South Lauderdale. So many incredible songs have been recorded there that the list feels endless. Everyone from O.V. Wright, Al Green, Ann Peebles and hundreds of other soul giants to dozens of other musical styles that it’s like magic lived there. The late producer Willie Mitchell called Royal home for decades, and now son Boo Mitchell is creating his own legacy. And MEMPHIS ROYAL BROTHERS is as fine an example of this legacy as could be imagined. Musical royalty Bobby Rush, Charlie Musselwhite, Wendy Moten, Marcus Scott and so many more throw in with the Memphis Royal Brothers conglomeration with a mountain of soul to make sure there is no missing just what a special endeavor the album is. Brothers Richard and Gary Bolen realized their dream of putting together a band featuring so many of the Royal studio regulars to keep the Memphis spirit intact, and found the songs that fit Bluff City’s royalty just right. There is no way these sessions could have been held anyplace else but Royal, and the way so many friends and family pitched in to make sure everything fit right that in the end history gets made. America’s musical history lives in places like this, and there was no way anything but the highest class sessions were going to come alive on the album. And while much of America’s golden history of studios and musicians sometimes feels like it is shrinking, there is no way that is going to happen with the Memphis Royal Brothers. This is the sound of history and happiness, and a group of men and women who carry history in their souls those attributes like nobody’s business. Listen to that history come completely alive again, and know that the music is in the best hands in the land. Long distance information.
Parlor Greens, IN GREEN / WE DREAM. Fifty years ago jazz organ trios roamed the Earth. The shaved-down bands with the semi-behemoth Hammond organs could be found everywhere: in small rooms around major cities as well as concert halls and, yes, even cruise ships. The flying keyboard notes and swinging rhythm sections brought a fast-paced sound that fit into all walks of life. Of course, it was too good to last as a cultural institution, but it was sure fun while it swung. Unfortunately, the physical size and weight of the Hammonds came to be a challenge to move, and before you could say “Jimmy Smith,” the organs started to be replaced by more svelte electronic keyboards and then the avalanche of digital instruments were all the rage. And as the 1970s took over, pianos came back into fashion and icons like Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock and others were at the front of the line while Big John Patton and other organists went back into club corners. But don’t tell that to Parlor Greens. Their debut album, IN GREEN / WE DREAM is a full-tilt excursion into jazz organ trio beauty as practiced by Adam Scone, Tim Carman and Jimmy James. There is such a forceful swing to Parlor Greens that it can’t be denied. Scone himself is a power of nature, bipping and bopping up and down the keys of his well-used Hammond like an instrumentalist on fire. It feels like the heady days of the 1960s when these keyboard kings got to wear their crowns as some of the most exciting players on the bandstand, players who could set a nightclub on fire with just a drummer and guitarist onboard wailing with the organ player. Parlor Greens’ ability to funkify the atmosphere and take off into the stratosphere adds a joy to living, and while they might not bring back a new army of Hammond soldiers there will surely be those who put a funkified glide in the stride of those who walk the sidewalks of the world with a fortified revitalization of soul. Time to swing.
Duke Robillard, ROLL WITH ME. Sometimes life in the record business can take some quirky turns. Blues guitar ace Duke Robillard started an album session in the early 2000s but got sidetracked with different ideas as the years moved by. And then, whammo, two decades later the album he’d started all those years ago was sitting on a studio shelf and just waiting for some attention. Which is exactly what happened not long ago, and now Robillard has revisited the album he started in 2005 and, voila, here’s ROLL WITH ME. It’s clearly one of the guitar king’s finest efforts, one that captures exactly the majesty of the blues that this man has always honored. The way Duke Robillard can dip into the endless well of musical grandeur that early influences like Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Big Joe Turner and Fats Domino offered him, along with how Chicago giants like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and Eddie Boyd have continually affected him give ROLL WITH ME an endless gathering of heart. And make it an idea that was worth waiting for to finally hear now. This is music from deep in the well of one of America’s grandest musical traditions–the blues–and allows those who have been profoundly shaped by this music to extend the tradition in their own form. There is no doubt Duke Robillard is one of America’s finest purveyors of this sound, played with a feeling of such strength that it fits perfectly next to those who actually invented the style. There are those who devoted their lives to blues, and as they age their profound accomplishments playing that most American of sounds just gains depth and devotion. Duke Robillard is at the top of the list of the blues’ best friends, and while it may have taken almost 20 years to hear the recordings on ROLL WITH ME, there can be no doubt every single second was worth the wait. This is a crowning album by a man whose life is a continuing revelation. Blues or lose.
Sauce Boss, THE SAUCE. Now here’s a musician who is surely the Boss with the hot sauce. Bill Wharton tiptoes into the other worldly area of music that feels like the mojo regulator is turned up to stun, and there’s nothing on the bluesy side of the street that Wharton can’t do. He’s got an eerie slide guitar atmosphere that won’t let go, and the man’s vocals are just other worldly enough to put everything in the alley. On songs like “Delta 9 Blues” and “Left Handed Smile,” the Sauce Boss gets good and smoked like the best barbecue in the world. The man also speaks of spoogling his hot sauce into the gumbo he likes to serve at his gigs, and for those ready to make the plunge this album offers the place to do it. He flies from one-man band set-up to a trio that just won’t quit. And if that’s not enough, the Sauce Boss also can swing back and forth from low-down blues to covers of Jimmy Buffett’s “I Will Play for Gumbo,” Van Morrison’s “Gloria,” Robert Johnson’s “Stop Breaking Down” and, yes, the Beatles’ “The Word.” That’s what they call covering the waterfront and then some. It’s not that often that a live wire like this comes flying onto the radar, promising a new recipe of flamboyant grooving and after-school drooling. So when it’s time to stop worrying if the Oasis brothers are going to reunite or not, dial up the Sauce Boss and give him a ring to find out when his next stop nearby is going to happen. And don’t fret: just when these songs are about to throw your inner organs into disrepair, the low-down beauty of “Don’t Know How to Tell You” takes over centerstage to paint a layer of beauty over the sonophonics and deliver a promise of eternal love to straighten everything out. Sauce ‘n roll.
Reissue of the Month
Dr. John, GRIS-GRIS GUMBO YA YA: SINGLES 1968-1974. When it’s time to step onto the musical spaceship and take a ride into a new time zone, the first destination should be the early world of Dr. John’s recorded masterworks. There is something so knocked-out loaded about that place that it is utterly unforgettable. For starters, it’s built on a solid foundation of early New Orleans rhythm & blues, and then put through a blender of maximum majesty that it is guaranteed there will never be anything like it again. The characters that inhabit Dr. John’s songs are real, but not of this planet. And the groove that the piano man invents with his trusted characters will not be coming our way again. These are once-in-a-lifetime roustabouts that mix ultimate fun with second-line exuberance blended in a way that is guaranteed to send the monkey nerve into hyperdrive. It truly is not of this planetary normality. It’s a whole other condition of fine-tuned turbulence. Songs like “Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya Ya,” “I Walk on Guilded Splinters,” “Mama Roux” and “Loop Garoo” are simply written in a place of imbued splendor, This isn’t music that can be explained.. There is no explanation, except to step into its whirlwind of mind mixtures that are of another place, and then chase the divination to its ultimate destination. Really. And by the time Dr. John takes a bit of a curve and jumps into Crescent City classics like “Iko Iko,” “Big Chief,” and “Let the Good Times Roll,” there is nothing to do but put on the dancing shoes and take that roll down Canal Street all the way to the Mississippi River. And then get prepared to jump into Dr. John originals like “Right Place Wrong Time,” “Such a Night” and “I’ve Been Hoodood” all the way to hang with the human gators on Decatur Street in the French Quarter. There is no going back now. Dr. John has cast his spell so life goes into the ultraness of all great journeys. There is nothing to do but let the spells have their way, and turn life over to “Mos’ Scocious” and the promise of “Let’s Make a Better World.” When Dr. John left the planet a few years ago, it didn’t take long to realize he took a lot of his magic with him. But in listening to and living these 26 songs of utter groovability, we will all know the incredible joy the music man left behind. Yeah you right.
Book of the Month
Michael Goldberg
JUKEBOX: PHOTOGRAPHS 1967-2023.
Books featuring mostly rock & roll photography used to be few and far between 50 years ago, but in the modern world they appear with dependable regularity. Many of them are outstanding, and there are a few that really hit the monkey nerve. Like Michael Goldberg’s new collection JUKEBOX: PHOTOGRAPHS 1967-2023. His assimilation of over 200 images feels like a love letter home, sent from someone who is not only a professional photographer but rather a true-blue music lover who just happened to own a camera at the start of his love affair with music. Goldberg is a Bay Area Californian, born and raised, who was lucky enough to get bitten by the rock bug at an early age and able to chase the sound all over the state. He became a professional journalist at a young age, and then jumped deep into the world of internet publishing before just about anyone else when he created the early website Addicted to Noise. What really comes through on every page of JUKEBOX is just how much Michael Goldberg loves the sounds he has worshipped his entire life. While all these images are highly professional, even better is how strong the emotional power is conveyed on every page. It’s like each photo is a letter sent to fellow music lovers, one that can transfer the mutual power these pictorial beauties share. Rock & roll, blues and jazz have always had something like a secret handshake for those who share a deep love of the sounds, one that can be passed along without words. And that’s exactly what JUKEBOX does for an entire book. So many stunning artists show up in unique settings on these pages that by the end of the book, there’s an unforgettable image of a sign on a Mississippi juke joint that says simply “Prepare to Meet Thy God.” It’s like a private password has been shared. Which is exactly how rock & roll first took over the world: one person at a time beginning in the early 1950s. The irrefutable power of every photo in this unique book goes far beyond who the photos are of, but rather it’s how their magic is captured. See and believe.
Song of the Month
Gary Myrick
“ON THE ROAD AGAIN’
For a known Texan who has had a very fulfilling musical ride, it is nothing short of stunning to hear Gary Myrick’s new recording of Canned Heat’s classic “On the Road Again” from band member Alan Wilson. It’s like Myrick has taken something already known by almost everyone and given it a brand new spin which offers a rebirth of joyousness. It is almost impossible to outdo a classic, which is surely what the Canned Heart single is, in a way that seems like the new version has never been heard. But that’s Myrick’s gift. When he began his rock & roll odyssey all those years ago, it seemed like the young man was clearly on his own path. Myrick’s early recordings sounded like he was capable of fashioning styles that had not been heard. But to take a blues staple and turn it into a 2024 revelation, well that just doesn’t happen anymore. But happen here it does, and it is one not to be missed. Turn it up.
