Bonnie Bramlett

Bonnie Bramlett - Sweet Bonnie Bramlett - 1973 - Columbia

Let's name a few of the great modern jazz, soul, and blues singers. There are many. How about Rory Block, Bonnie Raitt, Maria Muldaur, Kyla Brox, Mary Coughlan, Carolyn Leonhart...We'll stop there, and add one more, - Bonnie Bramlett. Bonnie is without doubt one of the one of the most respected and talented female jazz/blues/soul/rock vocalists in music history. The famous music critic Robert K. Oermann said that "Bonnie Bramlett sings like she has walked through the fires of hell, and danced with the angels."She sings blues, jazz, soul, folk, and almost everything else with a beautiful vocal style that few are born with. A.O.O.F.C cannot extol the lady's talents highly enough. Bonnie was a back up singer for Albert King when she was just thirteen. She was one of Ike & Tina Turner's Ikettes. She married the late, great Delaney Bramlett in 1967, and the rest is history. "Sweet Bonnie Bramlett" was Bonnie's great solo debut album and is firmly rooted in the southern soul rock style. She is backed by artists including Lowell George and the Average White Band. Bonnie recalls: "The band played me a tape over the phone, so I sent them airfare and brought them over to the States. The Average White Band was my first band as a solo artist." "Sweet Bonnie Bramlett" is HR by A.O.O.F.C. Listen to Bonnie's "Roots, Blues & Jazz" album. Check out the Delaney & Bonnie "Accept No Substitute" album, and try and listen to the late Willie DeVille's "Backstreets Of Desire" album which features Bonnie on background vocals, and also the brilliant ex-Steely Dan guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter on guitar. Her "I'm Still the Same" album is @ BONBRAM/ISTS N.B: Read more about the AWB's involvement with this album @ http://www.classicbands.com/AWBInterview.html

TRACKS / COMPOSERS

1. Able, Qualified And Ready - Leon Ware & Bonnie Bramlett
2. Singer Man - Durrie Parks
3. Crazy 'Bout My Baby - Robert Mosley
4. Got To Get Down - Gordon DeWitty
5. Good Vibrations - Gordon DeWitty
6. Rollin' - Marc Benno, Dan Penn, Rita Coolidge & Tommy McClure
7. Celebrate Life - Gordon DeWitty
8. The Sorrow Of Love - Daniel Moore
9. (You Don't Know) How Glad I Am - Jimmy Williams & Larry Harrison
10. Don't Wanna Go Down There - Trad. Arr. by Furry Lewis

CREDITS [Not a definitive list]

Bonnie Bramlett - Vocals, Background Vocals
Sephnie Spruill, Gloria Jones - Back-up Vocals
Lowell George
Average White Band - Rhythm Section
Van Dyke Parks - Marimba on track 2
Freddie Stone
Joe Sample
Bobby Womack

SHORT BIO

Bonnie Bramlett is an R&B/rock singer. She moved to Memphis in the early '60s and became a session and backup singer for R&B and blues performers such as Fontella Bass and Albert King. She then became a member of the Ikettes, the backup singers for Ike & Tina Turner. That brought her to Los Angeles in 1967, where she met Delaney Bramlett, who had been a member of the Shindogs, the resident group on the TV show Shindig; they married within five days and formed a musical act, Delaney and Bonnie. Delaney and Bonnie cut an album for Stax Records in Memphis, backed by Booker T. and the MG's, but it was not released at first. They then formed a group called Delaney and Bonnie and Friends, who featured Leon Russell among others, and cut Accept No Substitute (1969). After Delaney and Bonnie and Friends toured opening for Blind Faith, Eric Clapton left that group and joined them along with such notables as George Harrison and Dave Mason. This resulted in the On Tour album, after which members of the Friends band worked with Clapton and Harrison, and on Joe Cocker's Mad Dogs and Englishmen. Delaney and Bonnie made several more albums before divorcing. Bramlett then formed the Bonnie Bramlett Band and released her debut solo album, Sweet Bonnie Bramlett, backed by the Average White Band, in 1973. She then signed to Capricorn Records and made It's Time (1975), Lady's Choice (1976), and Memories (1978). She later became a born-again Christian and began singing gospel music. She turned to acting in 1987, under the name Bonnie Sheridan, and has since appeared in the film The Doors and the TV series Rosanne. In 2002 Bramlett returned to the music world with the release of her first album in over twenty years, I'm Still the Same on Audium. The record features Bramlett singing a variety of styles like jazz, blues and adult contemporary in a voice that has lost little of its power. © William Ruhlmann, allmusic.com