Take one look at the highlight reel of Georgia-born and based music treasure Randall Bramblett and it’s hard to find an accomplishment he hasn’t added to the list of his three-decades-long, storied music career: becoming a sought-after member of the Macon-based Capricorn Records family, touring with the iconic Gregg Allman and playing on the groundbreaking album Laid Back, helping define a culture of sound through his musical contributions to groups like Cowboy and Sea Level, landing songwriting cuts on Grammy-nominated works from Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Famer Bonnie Raitt, The Blind Boys of Alabama, and Blues queen Bettye LaVette, whose album LaVette! was actually a full record of Bramblett cuts.
LaVette also called Bramblett, “the best writer that I have heard in the last 30 years.”
There’s also countless collaborations over the years with everyone from Elvin Bishop to Steve Winwood to the late B.J. Thomas to Widespread Panic to the Atlanta Rhythm Section to . . . well, you get the picture.
Bramblett is, as the kids would say, “the man, man.”
But in a recent conversation with The Creek’s Charles Davis and Sam Stephens, the ever-humble Bramblett was nothing but accepting and grateful as he reflected back on his tenured life in music. That’s not to say that he’s arrived at a place of total complacency.
“You can’t do better than Randall Bramblett!” — Grammy-winning icon Bonnie Raitt
In the heart of this celebrated singer-songwriter still resides that young, small-town guy from Jesup, still waking up every day to chase the next bit of inspiration and out-write the previous day’s lyric. So when asked by the Creekside Mornings duo what hopes he had for his musical future, his answer was both surprising and sincere, much like his prolific artistry.
“You know what? I just want to keep writing good songs,” Bramblett told Davis and Stephens on-air.
“It would be nice to have a little bit larger crowds where we go, those small things like that, so that we could afford something other than a 2002, 15-passenger van so that we wouldn’t be breaking down . . . little things like that,” he said with a quiet chuckle.
True: massive fame has never been the pinnacle for Bramblett, but even he understands the importance of a reasonable amount of acclaim. And in today’s musical climate, it’s more necessary than ever. But like most things in life, keeping your expectations in check and gratitude at the helm of the journey is the key, a reminder that Bramblett embodies to the core of his being.
“I just want to keep writing good songs.” — Randall Bramblett on his hopes for a musical future
“I would like a little more recognition just to be able to get out a little bit more. I am not looking to get up in the stratosphere with my career. That would be such a hassle, especially at this age. I just like to keep it fairly small . . . I’m okay where I’m at. I really am.”
Bramblett’s latest album Paradise Breakdown offers an exploration of life’s most notable contradictions. Themes of love, loss, joy, disappointment, nostalgia and mortality take center stage throughout one of his most cohesive and exciting collection of songs to date. Bramblett brought that album and his funky four-piece band back to his second hometown of Macon with a show historic Grant’s Lounge. Of course, he more than deliver on his promise to “turn that place into a juke joint.”
Talk about a true homecoming. Paradise Breakdown is now available and can be found HERE.