‘Tis a fact that Randall Bramblett has a long history in the musical trenches, dating back to his days with Sea Level back in the 70s … and you may know him best for his work supporting Gov’t Mule, Levon Helm, Widespread Panic, and Gregg Allman – to name just a few. But if you’ve never dug into Randall Bramblett’s catalog of solo albums (he’s up to nine of ‘em), you’re missing out, my friend. He may be a super sideman, but Randall Bramblett is a helluva bandleader, too. One spin of his latest, The Bright Spots, and you’re going to know it, hands down.

If you had to boil The Bright Spots down to one word, “soul” would probably be the candidate, as the album’s dozen tunes are loaded with it – in a number of forms. Bramblett sounds like Tom Waits (a few thousand packs of Chesterfields ago) on the herky-jerky cool of “Whatever That Is”, while “All Is Well” features some cool piano by Bramblett beneath a vocal laced with a handful of mellow Chris Rea-style gravel. The title of “Detox Bracelet” sounds like the soundtrack to a trailer park horrorshow, it’s actually a lovely, poignant piece of work that glides along gently, running a finger along the backbone of your heart.

Click HERE to read the conclusion of my Randall Bramblett review on Jambands.com