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BONNIE & THE KIDS
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 Waylon Jennings 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.
REVIEWS OF "BEAUTIFUL"
Bill Thames
Sometimes—just sometimes, the musical world and the real world step in line, and recordings such as this materialize from a place of deep honesty. Here, Bramlett snuggles deep down into a familiar blanket of earthy melodies that bring out the best in her bare-bones, smoky vocal style. This album is brimming with fresh new material, classic feels, and songs that unfold like the roadmap of her life, and the best songs here hit with unexpected force. Buy two, one for yourself and one for your best friend.
Michael Buffalo Smith "GRITZ"
This is one of the most brilliant albums of Bonnie's career. The song choices are perfect, and you can never lose with Johnny Sandlin producing. Every song is a winner. Bonnie has more soul than a plate full of ribs and collard greens. This lady is the best, and this album is one of the finest releases of 2008. Don't miss it. (www.gritz.net)
Bonnie on "The Midnight Special" May 12th, 1978
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