Doyle Bramhall: 1949-2011

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Doyle Bramhall: 1949-2011
November 15, 2011
By John Barrett
Paste

Early on Sunday morning, Doyle Bramhall, a legendary figure of blues music who helped establish Austin as a center for the genre, died at his home in Alpine, Texas, apparently of natural causes. He was 62.

A veteran of the Texas blues scene for over 40 years, Bramhall first came to prominence as the drummer for The Chessmen, a band fronted by blues guitarist Jimmie Vaughan in Dallas in the 1960s. In the ’70s, he relocated to Austin along with Jimmie and younger brother Stevie Ray Vaughan and helped put the city on the map musically.

Stevie Ray Vaughan played in Bramhall’s band The Nightcrawlers in the ‘70s before he became a prominent guitarist in his own right. As Bramhall was not only a talented drummer but also a singer and songwriter, Bramhall influenced Stevie Ray’s vocal style and wrote several songs the guitarist later made famous, most notably “The House Is Rockin’.” He was also one of the first blues musicians in Austin to successfully kick his alcohol and drug habits and helped many other artists, including Stevie Ray, to do the same.

Bramhall had also maintained a modest solo career of his own since the ‘90s, with his most recent album, 2007’s Is It News, being his first album to comprise entirely original material.

He is survived by wife Barbara Logan and daughter Georgia Bramhall as well as son Doyle Bramhall II, who is an accomplished guitarist and has toured with high-profile stars like Eric Clapton and Roger Waters.