Doyle Brahmall II
Doyle Bramhall II has been sneaking into and around Lafayette since he was 14. That makes his performance on September 15 at Jefferson Street Pub a homecoming of sorts. He tagged along tours with his dad, who was drumming for Marcia Ball, and sat in as a scrawny gunslinger prodigy, impressing a similarly teenaged C.C. Adcock at a show at Grant Street Dancehall in the 1980's. The two became fast friends and Bramhall has since made Lafayette a frequent stop in his travels for many years, touring through the city with The Fabulous Thunderbirds or stopping in to raise hell with Adcock. Lafayette has survived their decades of roustabouts. Let’s hope that luck continues after the two reunite for an epic swamp-rock bro-down.
Bramhall tells me in a diluted drawl that his new band is his most expansive in sound yet, a logical extension of his prolific side-man work with artists like Eric Clapton, Roger Waters and Erykah Badu. Don’t bog him down with the bluesman trope. His upcoming record is running the gamut, and you can take an ear gander at JSP next week.
We’re fortunate to have a DBII ambassador in our midst, the aforementioned C.C. Adcock. I caught up with him via email while Sir Adcock was in London, shaking down a chimney sweep for a scone and a pint of lager. As usual, ours is a most erudite exchange of ideas, and one that will certainly enlighten you to the fineries of a Doyle Bramhall performance. I’ll let C.C. do the introducing. In the meantime, click here to grab advanced tickets for $20 or shell out $30 at the door. C.C. and his band the Lafayette Marquis open the show.
XN: You’re in England, right? What time is it?
CC: It’s afternoon. Six hours ahead of Lafayette, this time of year. Seven hours ahead of Scott. Winter is coming
XN: Are you tired of asking for chips when you want fries?
CC: Remembering to ask for “aubergine” instead of eggplant with my shrimp & crab meat casserole is more tiring. And having someone hit you up with “I’m absolutely gagging for a fag,” when all they want is to bum a smoke, will put me off my dinner completely. Maybe I shouldn’t have just used the word “bum.”
XN: I noticed Doyle is left-handed. Does that scare you at all? That’s sort of like going through life driving on the other side of the road.
CC: I am actually left-handed in life, but play righty, thanks to some prick classical instructor I had as a child who was too lazy to transpose my lessons. He actually made me relearn and start over regular righty, even after a couple of years of me naturally playing the other way, like Doyle does. Doyle’s right-handed but plays southpaw. And not like Hendrix did it, by simply restringing. I mean Doyle just picks up a right-handed guitar, turns it upside down, high strings on top, and starts spanking it Albert King style. It is very scary!
XN: So he’s toured with Roger Waters, Eric Clapton, grew up with Stevie Ray Vaughan, and gigged with The Fabulous Thunderbirds. That’s the poster pantheon of a teenage guitarist. Is DBII actually a teenager, and has he, to your knowledge, ever attempted to play Stairway to Heaven or Eruption?
CC: I don’t think he was looking at posters, just listening to records. He grew up in the blues and didn’t go to school much. He wasn’t some suburban kid reading Hit Parader and Tiger Beat. They probably had some show posters from Bobby Bland, Hounddog Taylor, Lightnin’ Hopkins, and Jimmie & Stevie’s bands on the walls to decorate - all the blues guys that his dad was gigging with and living with in Texas. I remember one time, when we were in our teens and he was staying with me in Lafayette, I brought up Zeppelin and Van Halen and all that modern rock stuff. He just gave me a blank stare. I think he knew ZZ Top and Disraeli Gears.
XN: Where did you guys meet? Was this a “rivalry born of mutual respect that turns into friendship”- type situation or did you knuckleheads pretty much hit it off from the get-go?
C.C. Adcock
CC: We met backstage at Grant St Dancehall. He was traveling with his dad, who played drums for Marcia Ball at that time. It was ‘84 I think. My teenage band had opened for Marcia earlier in the year and I had befriended his dad, Doyle Sr, or “Big Doyle” as he was known. So Big D had called me on my children’s line at my parent’s house to tell me they were coming back through and that he’d have his son with him. He had figured we were about the same age. I was 14. I got to the gig late and Lil’ Doyle was already on stage sitting in. Lots of jewelry and eyeliner, his purple mohawk tucked up into a sashed beret and a packet of Kools rolled up in his t-shirt sleeve. The singer in our band and my girlfriend at the time, Kerrie Chatelain, was just melting and looking all starry-eyed up at him. I remember that I kept insisting to her that he was most definitely a lot older than us. He played so great and even then, really not much different than he does now. He just always had it. Then at the set break, I went to meet him and Big D backstage. When we were introduced, I remember making a little jab about his turquoise necklace looking just like the one Stevie Vaughan had just worn on the cover of Guitar Player magazine. Lil’ looked at me and said, “Yeah, Stevie gave it to me. He gave me my guitar too. You wanna see it?” We’ve been best friends ever since. Come a long way - two blocks exactly, from Grant Street to JSP!
XN: Suppose Doyle asked to sit in on one of your tunes at JSP, is it more polite to offer him the lead or the rhythm? I honestly don’t know what the etiquette is.
CC: We both play both. And neither one of us plays politely.
XN: Can you play Stairway to Heaven?
CC: Once, when I was about 13, a family came into Lafayette Music looking for someone to play “Stairway To Heaven” at their teenage son’s funeral. I was working at the store then, teaching guitar lessons. Playing that kid’s funeral, at the USL chapel on University, was one of my first professional gigs.
XN: I mean it as a request. Like, can you play it at the show next Tuesday?
CC: You planning on dying?
XN: Doyle seems to do a lot of tribute shows. I saw one where he performed some Brian Wilson songs. If he plays "Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow," what are the chances that it summons an actual fire?
CC: I don’t know nothing about The Beach Boys, but here’s a snap of Jerry Lee getting into his car at The Palladium in London on Sunday night. You Brass Bed boys really should work up something by The Killer into your set. Actually, there should be a Louisiana law requiring every band in the state to!
