Doyle Bramhall II

Born on Christmas Eve 1968 in Austin, Texas, Doyle Bramhall II grew up with a father, Doyle Bramhall Sr., who had drummed for several groups, among them Texas Storm, which he co-led with Jimmie Vaughan. Picking up the guitar himself, the younger Bramhall followed the same blues path, joining tours with Vaughan’s Fabulous Thunderbirds. Late in 1990 he launched the rock outfit Arc Angels alongside guitarist Charlie Sexton; the lineup also featured bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton, both previously with Stevie Ray Vaughan. The band dissolved in October 1993, after which Bramhall entered treatment for substance abuse before returning to music by assembling the Mighty Zor, again with Shannon and Layton and, at times, Sexton.

By the middle of the decade Bramhall issued his first solo album and quickly became a sought-after collaborator, touring and recording with Roger Waters and Eric Clapton. Clapton included two Bramhall songs—“Marry You” and “I Wanna Be”—on the 2000 release Riding with the King, a joint project with B.B. King. The following year Reptile featured “Superman Inside,” a track Bramhall wrote with his wife, Susannah Melvoin. Around the same period he fronted Smokestack, whose members included vocalist Melvoin, keyboardist Benmont Tench, guitarist Craig Ross, bassist Chris Bruce, and drummer J.J. Johnson.

Bramhall’s reputation as both sideman and songwriter earned widespread admiration across the music community. He performed and sometimes recorded with an array of artists that included his father, who died in 2011, as well as C.C. Adcock, Sheryl Crow, Bettye LaVette, Lisa Marie Presley, and Susan Tedeschi. Throughout the 2000s and 2010s he continued supporting major acts while resuming his own recording career in 2016 with Rich Man, his first solo album in fifteen years. Two years later he issued Shades, his debut for Provogue Records.