Dear John, Huge thanks to all the performers and fans who came out to enjoy the preliminary round of our annual AZ Blues Showdown on Sunday. Great sets turned in by all of the acts. I say it every year, but I'm very glad I don't have to judge the competition.
We have four acts advancing to next week's finals. JC & the Juke Rockers; Moonshine Voodoo Band; BD Frank and Smokestack Lightning will lay it all out to see who reps the Valley at the IBC in Memphis in January. This is a big deal y'all so make plans to join us and lets make it one to remember. Start time has been bumped up to 2 p.m. so please make note.
We're making plans for our annual PBS/St. Mary's Food Bank food and membership drive on Oct. 21 at the RR. Details coming soon. Can't think of much more news. Please get out and show your support at your neighborhood jams. They're going on all over town. And...have a great week!Jim Crawford, PBS
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 | | | Doyle II inherited his Blues cred from his father and friends in Austin. Seems to have worked out pretty well.
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All In The Family
by Andy Aledort Guitarist, songwriter and producer Doyle Bramhall II is known for his stellar songwriting and guitar playing with such seminal artists as Eric Clapton, Roger Waters, B.B. King, the Tedeschi Trucks Band and many others. What are some of your earliest recollections of music, that perhaps drew you to the pursuit of becoming a musician? I was born into the world of music. Pretty much my whole family on my dad's side played music. At the time I was born, there was a whole movement going on in Texas; blues musicians were migrating to Austin in droves, such as Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughan, the Bramhall family, Denny Freeman, Bill Campbell and all of these great players. It was a more liberal place to be for hippie musicians! Also at that time, there were a lot of blues greats playing in Austin at a place called the Armadillo-for example, Freddie King played there all of the time, as did so many incredible musicians of the day. Your dad used to play drums for Freddie King, didn't he? Yes. Either Jimmie, Stevie and my dad would open for Freddie, or Jimmie might play with Freddie in his band. The Vaughans and Bramhalls were all living together in the same house, too, and we did everything together. Oftentimes, my sister and I would be at the club with our parents when they were performing. They had us when my dad was 19 and my mom was 18, which is hard for me to imagine. We took in all of the music of these great blues artists that were still alive at the time, which one didn't really get the opportunity to do unless you lived in Chicago, Mississippi or Texas. Texas had its own culture and its own blues. Do you have any very specific early memories of music? Because it started for me so young, it's hard to point out one thing because we lived in the clubs and there were so many experiences all of the time. I have a "Pavlovian" experience every time I smell that "next morning" bar smell, or the smell of drum cases, because the smell of my dad's drums cases is so infused in my memory banks. But I do remember seeing Freddie King in person and he seemed like he was larger than life itself. He wore all these rings-I think that's where I got my love of wearing big rings on your fingers while you are playing. Just being in that kind of environment was such a fabric of my upbringing. There were so many of these types of experiences. My dad played gigs with Lightnin' Hopkins. They used to play at The Bluebird, this club in Fort Worth. Some pretty lowdown stuff went on there. That stuff still exists in Louisiana in the little juke joints. These shows are pure music. A distinctive element of your playing is that you play the guitar "upside down," in that you took a guitar strung for a righty and play it left-handed, so the strings are in the reverse order of what is considered normal. It's funny, because people think there might be a mystical answer to this, but the truth is that I really didn't know the difference! As a kid, anything that I would pick up-a guitar, a golf club, a baseball bat, a hockey stick-I would hold it as a lefty. That's what felt comfortable. By the time I had taught myself a couple of hundred songs, I went to take a lesson and this older Italian guitar teacher said that I had to either switch to playing right-handed, or change the strings so that they'd be properly arranged for a lefty. I just walked out and said, "Forget that." I was 14 when I started to play the guitar. Were you aware that some of the guitar players you liked, like Albert King and Otis Rush, played upside down? Yes I was. I happened to be an Albert King fan anyway, so I realized that after the fact. And then later on I realized Bobby Womack played upside down too. Are there advantages to playing with the strings upside down? The obvious advantage is in regard to string-bending, because, with the strings upside down, you pull down more often, so you can get much more strength in the bends. It's easier to do that way. That was the interesting thing about Stevie Ray Vaughan, because he found a way to transcend all of that-he got all of the power and the sound that Albert King got but did it with the guitar tuned normally, which is much harder to do. I don't know what that really is-unlocking things inside of yourself and finding things that you can do that others cannot. But I always thought there were certain things that just can't be done when playing upside down, like walking jazz chord/melody style, but then I toured a bit with Eric Gales and he blew that idea out of the water. Whatever idea I had about what you can't do upside down, he disproved it! Knowing Stevie so well, did you ever talk about these things with him? Well, he actually paid a price for being as committed as he was to the kind of string bending he was known for. I used to go see him and he had this "callous kit" so he could glue his fingertips back together. It was like a wallet-thing with nail files, Super Glue, baking powder. He often had massive holes, like a quarter inch deep, in his fingertips. Before the shows, he'd have to basically "putty" new fingertips back on. He'd rip the skin off the palm of one hand and use the skin to glue onto the hole in the fingertip. Then he'd file it down so he could play, with these fake fingertips made of skin, glue and baking powder. After he stopped doing drugs, I said, "What happened to the big strings? You're playing on .011s now," and he'd say, "Yeah, I stopped doing cocaine so I couldn't do that anymore!" What were some of the records that impacted you significantly when you were young? There was so much music going on in the house all of the time that it's hard to say. But I can mention four or five records that I listened to all of the time. One is Bobby "Blue" Bland's "Two Steps From The Blues," another was an Al Green record, and "Fresh" by Sly & the Family Stone. The record that I wanted to sound the most like was a B.B. King record called "Easy Listening Blues." That and "Live At The Regal." 'Easy Listening Blues' is killer-it's all-instrumental and it's great. When I finally got to work with B.B. King later, I asked him about the record, and he had no recollection of it. So it could have been extra studio stuff that the record company put together. Recently I was down at Jimmie Vaughan's house, and he listens to everything on a jukebox. And he had the record in his jukebox, and that was the B.B. King record that he chose to listen to, which was really cool. It's such an obscure record; I don't know anyone else that's even heard of it. You have a very distinct singing voice, and I think for both guitar playing and singing, the way you "deliver" a melody is very much your own. I think my voice and my guitar playing are very similar. When I listen to the melodies I play on the guitar when I'm soloing, to me it sounds like I'm trying to "sing" on the guitar. I try to stay open to this all of the time, because I'm always trying to learn; I feel limited by what I can do on the guitar, because I've spent most of my life as a blues player, rooted in pentatonic scales, and it's hard to break out of that into a wider, broader vocabulary.
Who are some of your other influences as a singer? I should mention that, from the beginning, The Beatles were really huge in my house. My parents played their records all of the time, so I got a lot of my musical sensibilities about song structure, sounds, recording and producing from listening to the Beatles as much as I did. That played a huge role in why I wanted to become a songwriter. And just as important to me was Stevie Wonder. For record making itself, the records of the Beatles and Sly Stone are my absolute favorites. I hear some Johnnie Taylor and Shuggie Otis in your singing. Totally! Shuggie is great to bring up, because a lot of the songs on the record I'm working on now remind me of Shuggie. I was hugely influenced by Johnnie Taylor, too. I played a show with him when I was 18. Some millionaire in Dallas put this show together, with Johnnie Taylor, Dr. John, me and my dad, Marc Benno, and we played a little set. I loved Johnnie Taylor growing up. |
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| Out & About Tuesday, September 19 Chuck Hall (acoustic), 7 p.m., The Lounge, Phoenix Carvin Jones, 7 p.m., Dirty Blonde, Chandler Wednesday, September 20 Chris Duarte, 8 p.m., Rhythm Room, Phoenix JC & the Juke Rockers, 8 p.m., The Womack, Phoenix Carvin Jones, 7 p.m., Norton's Country Corner, Queen Creek Bad News Blues Band, Every Wed., 9:30 p.m., Chicago Bar, Tucson Thursday, September 21 Hans Olson, 6 p.m., Handlebar, Apache Junction Arizona Blues Project, 8 p.m., Harold's, Cave Creek Carvin Jones, 8:30 p.m., The Lounge, Phoenix Friday, September 22 Sugar Thieves, 9 p.m., Rhythm Room, Phoenix JC & the Juke Rockers, 6;30 p.m., Taco Guild, Phoenix Hoodoo Casters, 6 p.m., Desert Eagle Falcon Field, Mesa Carvin Jones, 8 p.m., Raceway Grill, Maricopa BluZone, 7 p.m., Draw 10, Phoenix Paris James, 6:30 p.m., D'Vine Wine, Mesa Saturday, September 23 Repeat Offenders (Early show), 6 p.m., Rhythm Room, Phoenix Soul Power Band, 9 p.m., Rhythm Room, Phoenix Sugar Thieves, 8 :15 p.m., Shady Park, Tempe Big Daddy D & the Dynamites, 8 p.m., Lucky Strikes, Apache Junction Chuck Hall, 8 p.m., Mayo Clinic Hospital (MS Benefit), Scottsdale JC & the Juke Rockers, Leon J & Juke Joint, 1:30 p.m., Mountain View Pub, Cave Creek Blues Review Band, 7 p.m., JD's Lounge, Scottsdale Outback Blues Band, 6: 30 p.m., American Legion Post 26, Mesa Carvin Jones, 8 p.m., Tilted Kilt, Tempe Sunday, September 24 AZ Blues Showdown Finals, 2 p.m. , Rhythm Room, Phoenix Big Daddy D & the Dynamites, 5 p.m., 10-12 Lounge, Clarkdale Leon J & Juke Joint, 4 p.m., Mountain view Pub, Cave Creek Rocket 88s JAM, 4 p.m., Steel Horse Saloon, Phoenix True Flavor Blues, NOON , Copper Star, Phoenix Monday, September 25
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| Weekly Jams
Bourbon Jack's JAM w/Kody Herring, 6 p.m., Chandler
MONDAY
Bam Bam & Badness Open JAM, 9 p.m., Char's, Phoenix
Weatherford Hotel JAM, 6:30 p.m., Flagstaff
TUESDAY
JAM Sir Harrison, 9 p.m., Char's, Phoenix
Rocket 88s, 6 p.m., Hideaway West, Phoenix
Gypsy's Bluesday Night JAM, 7 p.m. Pho Cao, Tempe
Tailgaters JAM, 7 p.m., Glendale
WEDNESDAY Rocket 88s, 7 p.m., Chopper John's, Phoenix Tool Shed JAM Party, 7 p.m., Draw 10, Phoenix
Bumpin' Bud's 1st & 3rd Wednesdays JAM, 7 p.m., Marc's, Glendale
THURSDAY Tool Shed JAM Party, 7 p.m., Steel Horse Saloon, Phoenix Jolie's Place JAM w/Adrenaline, 9 p.m., Chandler Brad's Place JAM, 7 p.m., Ahwatukee (Every other Week)
Far From Fulsom JAM first Thursday, 6 p.m., Electric Swamp Poets
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GOT BLUES? If you are a Blues musician, a group, or a club that features Blues music, and would like to be listed, please send your info to info@phoenixblues.org and we'll be happy to list your event in our weekly Out & About section of the newsletter |
Moved? Changed email addresses? Please let us know of any changes in your address, email, or phone number so we can keep you informed about the Blues community in Arizona. Email us at: info@phoenixblues.org or write to: Phoenix Blues Society P.O. Box 36874 Phoenix, Arizona 85067 |
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