Delany Bramlett

For a brief moment sometime around 1970, there weren’t many more influential figures in music than Delaney Bramlett. Working with then-wife Bonnie, he in some ways did as much as Gram Parsons to bring together the worlds of country, soul, blues and rock’n’roll, firmly laying another cornerstone in what today is called Americana. While his lengthy absence from the scene could have easily led to assumptions that he had suffered the same tragic fate as many of his peers, A New Kind Of Blues finds Bramlett definitely weathered but not totally the worse for wear. The trademark gospel-tinged vocals and back porch arrangements are still his bread and butter and will undoubtedly please fans of his classic work. However, revisiting this formula also shows how far ahead of his time Bramlett was. Contradictory to what the title proclaims, some of A New Kind Of Blues is unfortunately the same old same old that his successors have been dishing out since Bramlett effectively vanished in the mid-’70s. Still, it’s a welcome return for an artist that has been unfairly overlooked in the annals of rock history.