Doyle Bramhall II

Sometimes I’ve come across a talent wherein the artist has achieved a level of success amongst peers and idols but that doesn’t translate to mainstream success. This seems to be the case with Doyle Bramhall II. I came across him when he played on Austin City Limits. I ran down to my local record store the next day and they had never heard of him. Their database showed no evidence of an album by him. I finally found him through the internet, although I also found his father, Doyle Bramhall, Sr. Apparently, Doyle Senior is a drummer and has been on the scene in Texas for many decades. He played with Stevie Ray Vaughan and many blues greats. It seems that Doyle Junior has been overshadowed to some degree by his father. But his talent is there. He plays a unique style of guitar, a right handed guitar played like a left handed one. He never re-strung it correctly, so the high strings are up top and the low strings are on the bottom. This causes all of the fingerings to be upside down. Try finding a Mel Bay Chord Book for that! Anyway, he somehow taught himself to play this way, and play very well at that! His first album is called Jellycream (1999) and his second is called Welcome (2001). He caught the eye of Eric Clapton after his first album and he played on the phenomenal CD Riding With The King. BB King and Eric Clapton even covered two of Bramhall’s own songs on that album. Bramhall went on to tour with Clapton as his opening act. His website is often dormant, or even missing. I don’t know why this guy has not made it to the radio or to mainstream stardom. Clapton did all he could to help launch this guy and his performance on Austin City Limits is certainly on of the most memorable I’ve seen. If you like blues in the vein of SRV or Hendrix, look this guy’s albums up….if you can find them.