 "Photo: Callie Richmond")
Doyle Bramhall II is musical nobility. His father wrote songs and played drums with Stevie Ray and Jimmy Vaughn. Since he picked up guitar, he has made a living playing. He has played with Roger Waters, currently plays guitar with Eric Clapton and works closely with slide guitar prodigy Derrek Trucks. In 1991 Bramhall started the Austin-based blues-rock band Arc Angels with Charlie Sexton, Chris Layton and Tommy Shannon. This weekend Bramhall is playing at Antones' on Friday and Saturday night. The Daily Texan sat down with him to find out more about this blue-blood of the blues.
The Daily Texan: What was your first exposure to music like?
Doyle Bramhall II: I lived in a band house here in Austin till I was 5 years old with Stevie Vaughn and Jimmie Vaughn and my dad. The Bramhalls and the Vaughn brothers, both of our families moved down here in '69, so they were all playing in different bands, but then my mom sort of took me away from the "bad scene." After that I moved to Sonoma County in Northern California. At this point I think I played drums. I remember hearing that I did "Little Drummer Boy" in school when I was 6. I was around music so much that I was very musically minded.
DT: When did you start playing guitar?
DB: I didn't pick up a guitar till I was 14. I played drums before that. I think I started playing bass around 11 then just out of convenience, because my family had a lot of drummers. We needed a guitar player.
DT: So you have managed to make a living playing guitar your whole life?
DB: Yeah. I actually quit school, stopped going in 10th grade, because I was making like $500 a weekend, and that was only two days. I knew I could go to other places, like Reno, with different bands, and play. I was getting offers to play during the week so I knew that I could pull in more money playing than going to algebra.
DT: When did the Arc Angels get started?
DB: 1991 - very foggy time for me. We started in '91, and we were all rehearsing here at the Austin Rehearsal Complex, which I don't think is around anymore. It was a very sad time, because Stevie had died. I was actually playing with Tommy in a band. We were trying to start up something, and Chris was separately playing; he had his drum room, and Charlie had a studio, and so we just kept running into each other. I was working on my solo album - I had signed with Geffen at the time - and I went to record, and Charlie and I wrote a song together. That first song was "Living in a Dream." It was originally for my solo project, but we decided that we had such chemistry between us that we kept doing it. Then we all decided
to do a show and things just blew up really fast. We played one show, and so many people were talking about it afterward. That show was at the old Austin Opera House.
DT: You play with a bunch of guitar greats. Do you learn from guys like Eric Clapton and Derek Trucks?
DB: I learn from everybody I hear. If it's good then it definitely seeps in. I've learned a lot from Derek. I actually just got back from recording at his house - he just built a studio at his house in Jacksonville, Florida. I ended up co-producing with him four tracks or so and writing for his new album. They just finished mixing that. We played together in Eric's band for a couple years, and I definitely learned a lot. He's a virtuoso slide player; he can sort of pick up anything. When he hears something, he can play it back exactly like he heard it. I would call him "Predator" because he seemed to be able to pick up anything. That's the way he is with anything, not just guitar. He's like that with everything he does.
DT: Like X-box?
DB: I think he has Wii. He just has that crazy mind that can pick up anything.
DT: What kind of music is influencing you now?
DB: You know, I tend to listen to older music - there isn't one style that I listen to. I have been on a kick listening to delta blues, Charlie Patton, pre-war music in general. The album I've been working on recently is an album mostly of prison songs and work songs and a lot of them were recorded originally in 1910, 1920. A lot of this journey I've been taking with that whole delta music has brought me to a much wider and broader scope - going back to where a lot of that came from. Going through early African-American music to African music. I have since picked up the oud. The oud is an Arabic intrument - it might have started as a Persian or Turkish instrument - that has made its way through Africa and the Middle East, and it's a very popular instrument over there. I got into these Somalian and Sudanese oud players.
DT: So have you played your oud live?
DB: No, I've only jammed with it at parties.
Bramhill II will be playing at Antone's on Friday and Saturday night.
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