Randall Bramblett - The Bright Spots
Label.........................: New West
Genre.........................: Rock
StoreDate.....................: May-14-2013
Source........................: CDDA
Grabber.......................: Exact Audio Copy (Secure Mode)
Encoding Scheme...............: Lame 3.98.4 V0 VBR Joint-Stereo
Size..........................: 98.94 MB
Total Playing Time............: 58:13
Release Notes:
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.
Tracklisting
01. Roll 3:21
02. Every Saint 5:14
03. 'Til The Party's All Gone 5:07
04. My Darling One 4:54
05. Whatever That Is 4:25
06. John The Baptist 5:19
07. Shine 4:53
08. Trying To Steal A Minute 5:58
09. Detox Bracelet 4:24
10. You Bring Me Down 4:51
11. All Is Well 5:07
12. Rumbling Bridge 4:40
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