by Duke

Artists often make the mistake of assuming they only have to meet the right person for their career to take off. While this may be true of a few, it is always preceded by a history of working your ass off and overcoming what a lesser person might call “failures” (or what Einstein would call “finding 99 things that don’t work”).

He’s been compared to his late friend Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton. But it has been a long hustle for Doyle Bramhall II.

Before joining Eric Clapton’s band as second guitarist & playing on Roger Waters’ In the Flesh Live, Bramhall had been through two failed record contracts (with Geffen and RCA respectively). That’s enough for most of us to look around and figure “This ain’t working. Time to find a new outlet.”

But Bramhall had a friend & colleague named Bruce Flohr – a former RCA Senior VP – who believed in Bramhall’s music. He passed Bramhall’s second album to Eric Clapton, who was so impressed he took two songs for the album he did with BB King.

Since then Bramhall has reunited with his old band, fellow Austin Texas natives Arc Angels (who have a wicked website).

We don’t all have friends like Bruce Flohr. But we don’t all play the guitar like we were born to do it. And not all of us have the determination to keep playing everywhere we can to get it into folks’ ears. I think the lesson here is pretty self-explanatory.

Interesting factoid: Even though he plays a left-handed guitar, Doyle Bramhall II strings it like a right-hander, putting the E string on the bottom. Other legendary guitarists have taken this approach too – notably Albert King & Otis Rush. In the right hands (no pun intended) it contributes to a unique style that’s pretty easy to recognize.

Read more on Doyle Bramhall II at Wikipedia

and DBII’s discography

and check out the Official DBII website

Technorati Tags: Clapton, Doyle Bramhall, Geffen, RCA, Rejects Revenge

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