Fitchburg Street
It's impossible to hear Doyle Bramhall's swaggering rendition of "Life by the Drop" without thinking ofStevie Ray Vaughan. Not only is the Bramhall original strongly associated with Vaughan (whose posthumously released recording provided a poignant memorial), but Bramhall's gritty, smoky vocals were plainly the major influence on Vaughan's singing. The second CD by this veteran singer-songwriter-drummer celebrates the blues legacy that he and Vaughan share, with the guitar virtuosity of son Doyle II and the raucous harmonica of Gary Primich powering such highlights asJohn Lee Hooker's "Dimples" andHowlin' Wolf's "Sugar (Where You'd Get Your Sugar From)." There's no new material from Bramhall ("Life by the Drop" is the only original), and the jamming on familiar fare such asBuddy Miles's "Changes" andJimmy Reed's "Baby What You Want Me to Do" borders on bar-band excess, but the soulful renewal of "That's How Strong My Love Is" and "It Ain't No Use" reaffirms Bramhall as a Texas treasure. Somewhere, Stevie's smiling.--Don McLeese