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Bonnie Bramlett
looks you
straight in the
eye. Then she
lays it out.
“I don’t do
‘famous,’” she
says, her voice
as wise and true
as a Saturday
night slow-drag
or a Sunday
morning sermon.
“I don’t have an
entourage. I
don’t ride in
limos. I don’t
call cars. It
takes a lot of
work to be
famous …”
And here she
leans back, her
eyes dancing
playfully. “…
and I’m just a
lazy girl.”
Laughter
follows, as
infectious and
beckoning as the
rhythm in her
speech. Even so,
it only hints at
how Bramlett
communicates
through songs –
and that case is
made clear on
Beautiful,
the latest and
certainly one of
the greatest
albums this
peerless singer
has ever
tracked.
Bramlett has
followed just
about every path
through the
landscape of
American music.
Go back beyond
her previous
release, the
title-says-it-all
Roots,
Blues & Jazz,
back through the
phenomenon of
Delaney &
Bonnie, whose
electrifying
shows inspired
Eric Clapton to
give up his
superstar
spotlight and
woodshed as a
member of their
band, earlier
even than her
apprenticeship
as the only
white Ikette
ever welcomed
into the Ike &
Tina Turner
Revue, all the
way to the days
when she used to
sneak as a teen
from her
steel-town
neighborhood
into black blues
bars of St.
Louis, to hear
and then to sing
with the likes
of Little Milton
and Albert King.
All of these
experiences come
together on
Beautiful,
an album
that’s elegant
in its
simplicity and
profound in its
depth. It was
recorded with
the best of the
Muscle Shoals
rhythm section
joined by
roots-rock
veterans,
members of
Little Richard’s
and Delbert
McClinton’s
bands, and
others gathered
by Johnny
Sandlin, whose
artist-centric
productions
defined the
Southern rock
movement and
gave Bramlett
the inspiration
she needed to
record two of
her best solo
albums,
It’s Time
(1975) and
Lady’s Choice
(1976).
Beautiful
began, in fact,
with Bramlett
and Sandlin
revisiting the
bridges they had
built on those
projects. “Some
of the greatest
work I ever did
was with
Johnny,” she
remembers.
“Johnny had the
patience of a
saint with me
because I bring
all of these
intense feelings
into the studio.
Onstage, those
feelings are
great. But they
don’t always
translate that
well offstage.
In fact, I made
up this joke:
What did you do,
back in the day,
when the singer
is losing her
mind, crying,
lying on the
floor and having
a nervous
breakdown? If
you’re Johnny
Sandlin, you put
a mike on her
and hit
‘Record.’”
Bramlett laughs
again, and that
vignette takes
us to the birth
of
Beautiful.
The
singer in that
riddle remains
fundamentally a
vessel of
emotion but
capable now of
infusing the
flow of feeling
into a song with
subtler
insights.
Sandlin, too,
has grown, so
when they got
together shortly
after she had
finished
Roots, Blues &
Jazz,
each knew the
time was right
for them to cut
another classic.
As soon as they
started going
through songs,
the teamwork
they had
developed fell
back into play.
“The first
question I asked
Johnny was, ‘Are
you willing to
take a risk?’ He
said, ‘Sure, why
not? We can do
what we want! In
fact, I’ve got a
song that would
be a little bit
of a risk.’ And
I said, ‘Well, I
have one that’s
a major risk,
but it needs to
be said.’”
Those two songs
lit the torch
that illuminated
their reunion.
The title that
Sandlin
suggested was
Buffalo
Springfield’s
“For What It’s
Worth,” which
had wrapped the
passions of the
late ‘60s into a
single, potent
statement. And
Bramlett’s
choice was “Some
of My Best
Friends,” a Gary
Cotten
meditation on
the timelessness
of intolerance.
Each conveys a
meaning that,
for all the
variety in her
catalog,
represents
somewhat new
territory for
the singer.
“I’ve never
mixed music and
politics, not
even in the
‘60s,” she says.
“But ‘For What
It’s Worth’ fits
right now, big
time. And I’ve
got ‘Some of My
Best Friends’ in
my heart. I’ve
been trying to
cut it for
years, in fact,
but nobody would
touch that song
with me. Why?
It’s because
they’re in the
business of
making hit
records. But
Johnny’s in the
business of
making great
records. So
we did ‘em both
– and the way I
see it, if you
get it, praise
God! And if you
don’t, I’ll be
praying for
you.”
The rest of
Beautiful
followed
quickly, as
Bramlett and
Sandlin pitched
songs to each
other. There was
“I Do Believe,”
the Billy Joe
Shaver
rumination on
the search for
truth; Gary
Nicholson’s
“Bless ‘Em All,”
which addresses
a similar theme
with a wry grin
and a warm
embrace; the
smoky,
last-call,
horn-steamed
“It’s Gonna Rain
All Night” and
the dreamy,
steel-sweetened
title track …
each, like the
rest, a gem in
its conception
and performance.
Yet several
jewels stand out
even in this
crown. The
Stones-seasoned
rocker “Shake
Somethin’ Loose”
and the sultry
“Witness for
Love” were
written by
Randall
Bramblett, the
gifted
singer/songwriter
who had joined
previously with
Bramlett on
It’s Time.
He sings as well
on “Witness for
Love,” in a
performance that
inspires
Bramlett to
exclaim, “He
sounds so sexy!
Wait until you
hear this!”
And on
“Strongest
Weakness” she
sings with her
daughter Bekka
Bramlett, who
has become a
musical
sensation in her
own right. “It’s
our first duet
on record,”
Bonnie says.
“And she wrote
the song we
sing, ‘Strongest
Weakness,’ with
Gary Nicholson.
It rocks!”
After more than
40 years in the
public eye,
apprenticeships
as a backup
singer to giants
of the blues,
collaborations
with the
greatest stars
in rock & roll,
appearances as
an actress on
the small and
silver screens,
and above all a
lifetime marked
sometimes by
controversy but
never marred by
compromise,
Bramlett ties
her story into
one Beautiful
package, with a
message that
says all an
artist can hope
to say about his
or her work.
“I’m not making
blues records,”
she sums up.
“I’m not making
jazz records. I
don’t fit into a
slot. I never
have. I don’t
think about how
many records I
can sell; that’s
somebody else’s
job. For me, the
question is
bigger: Will I
be proud for my
kids, or my
great-grandkids
someday, to hear
this? You can’t
unring that
bell, baby.
That’s why all I
can do is to
make Bonnie
Bramlett
records, the
best I can.”
And then she
leans back, her
smile warmed by
the ironies of
experience and
informed by the
knowledge that,
with
Beautiful,
she has
accomplished
that mission,
after all.
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