Randall Bramblett - Devil Music (2015)

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Randall Bramblett - Devil Music (2015)

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A man with as much experience as he has ingenuity, Randall Bramblett has been a singer-songwriter, a session musician, and a hired gun for legends such as Gregg Allman and Steve Winwod. Bramblett’s latest release from his more than thirty years in the business, Devil Music, delivers the expected level of virtuosity, and surprises with a deep-fried, novel twist of Southern darkness. “Dead in the Water,” the album’s lead single is equally fulfilled through evocative lyrics, well-timed and managed effects, and instrumental superiority; a narrative of nowhere, the track is populated by dead-end characters and lowly living; fitting, for a track that Bramblett claims is inspired by William S. Burroughs. While immersing itself in the wonderfully weird, infinitely spiraling darkness of whimsy that exemplifies some of Tom Waits’ best work, “Dead in the Water” sees a guest appearance by storied axeman Mark Knopfler.

The title track begins with a West Coast hip-hop rhythm that sounds like a test beat for Nas’ Illmatic before the distorted twang of the guitar comes through to tell the soulful, adamant story of Howlin’ Wolf’s meeting and inevitable conflict with his absent mother. Horns and much implied head-bobbing give this track a sour, gospel kick, the kind you’d find in a decades-old Louisiana bourbon. “Bottom of the Ocean” is a B.B. King-style blues ballad about a pleading love that features some of the best guitar work and a brass chorus that betrays the speaker’s self-damnation.

Bramblett reminds us that he is also an accomplished vocalist by employing a smooth falsetto on “Angel Child” before giving the listener an ominous, yet chorus heavy, look at avoiding compromise with “Pride in Place.” “Reptile Pilot” delivers the beat poetry of Bramblett’s quasi-surrealist lyrics along with a strong jazz emphasis, landing the listener front and center at a Bukowski reading accompanied by a six-piece band at The Blue Whale. The jazz cools off a bit and experiments with some alien sounds on the track “Whiskey Headed Woman” and “Strong Love” supplies the catchiest, repeated guitar riff of the album.

A twinkling piano and an empty scene of isolation and forced loneliness introduce the track “Ride,” a lamentful ballad of packing up and leaving it all behind. The alternating static and clarity define the speaker’s ambivalent attitude towards his lover in “Thing for You” and Bramblett’s signature organ features prominently on the album’s closing track, “Missing Link,” in which the speaker takes the role of a supernatural savior.

Always surprising and impressively inventive, Devil Music is the most original, most authentic album to drop this year and an enjoyable listen for fans of jazz, soul, rock, gospel, blues, and exceptionally gifted songwriters who are re-defining the hallowed traditions of a sacred music.

Review by McKinnie Sizemore, BluesRockReview.com

Devil Music, the tenth album by singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Randall Bramblett, is a dark, swampy groovefest. Its 11 songs may depict broken characters, lost causes, wandering souls, and haunted spirits, but the songwriter celebrates them for who and what they are and revels unapologetically in their flaws and triumphs. Bramblett employs a musical patchwork of contemporary sonics and rhythms to extend the margins of blues, R&B, and gospel without watering them down. The core band features guitarists Davis Causey and Nick Johnson, drummer/producer/engineer Gerry Hansen, and either Michael Steele or Michael Rhodes on bass. They are augmented by occasional horns, a pair of percussionists, and a few heavy-hitting guests. "Dead in the Water" – about being trapped in crime and addiction – employs Bramblett's slippery Hammond B-3 to drive a rumbling bass and guitar vamp over a snare and bass-drum shuffle. His distorted, cracking vocal is pierced by Mark Knopfler's atypically meaty guitar lines. The title track offers a tale from Howlin' Wolf's biography about visiting his mama after his success. Her response? "Get away from me devil." The hip-hop rhythm, ambient loops, horns, and greasy guitar ride are pushed into the red by a quaking bass, and the vocal – "Mama, I can't stop/Playin' that devil music/I got the devil music/Down in my soul" – chills the marrow. In "Angel Child," a rounder tries to seduce an innocent while freely admitting his moral bankruptcy. Ballsy. Derek Trucks' wrangling, tonally rich slide guitar contrasts beautifully with Bramblett's slithering, soulful vocal. "Pride in Place" is a grimy, choogling blues-rocker, with punchy guitars, pulsing bassline, rattling tom-toms, and spiny keyboards under a desperate confessional narrative: "When you want to love somebody/With all your damaged soul/You don't want to know about/The fire that started that you can't control…." Former Sea Level bandmate Chuck Leavell adds spicy, New Orleans-style blues piano to the swaggering R&B in "Reptile Pilot." "Whiskey Headed Woman" filters noir-ish jazz-blues and modern R&B through the lens of D'Angelo's Voodoo. "Thing for You" is a cut-time, bumping soul tune with Bramblett's Wurlitzer piano (and tenor saxophone break) punching through brittle snares and silvery electric guitars. His singing – especially in the falsetto – soars effortlessly above the unshakable rhythm section. Lyrically, his songs balance conscientious rational choices against addictions and base human instincts through the paths and pitfalls of living in the boardroom or on the societal fringes. Devil Music may feel like an outlier in Bramblett's catalog, but restless experimentation has always been his trademark. The production, though far from slick, may initially startle, but through it, Bramblett reveals tradition to be a living, evolving process rather than a group of fixed archival notions.

Review by Thom Jurek, Allmusic.com

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Randall Bramblett - Devil Music (2015)

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Randall Bramblett - Devil Music (2015)

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Randall Bramblett - Devil Music (2015)

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