Customer Reviews

Roots Blues & Jazz

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Bonnie's new CD builds on the strengths of the amazing "I'm Still the Same" from 2002. She sings some standards, freshens the familiar, and offers originals on this excellent set. One of my very favorites is her treatment of Joe Zawinul's "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" that was a hit back in the 60s for the Buckinghams. With Roddy Smith's searing guitar, she rips into the melody and tears the emotion off the bone with a savage proclamation of love, "There is no girl in the whole world that can love him like I do." Another of my favorites is the Bramlett original "Gotcha" with its jazz groove and Bonnie's vocals alternating between boil & simmer, "Love came & hit me straight on the lips, the longer the kisses, the sweeter it gets." Stephen Stills' classic "Love the One You're With" is given a Stax-style makeover with Jessie Lucas and Robbie Montgomery who worked with Bonnie as part of the Ikettes making this track snap, crackle & pop. Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come" is given a sterling treatment with the build from its soft beginning to the full-bodied climax. Bonnie's original "Carefree" is an excellent upbeat tune. Nat Adderley's "Work Song" is given a good interpretation. Bonnie goes swing on Chuck Berry's "No Particular Place to Go" that is a bold departure. The set ends with a smoky torch rendition of "Harlem Nocturne," "The melody clings around my heart strings, it won't let me go when I'm lonely." "Roots, Blues & Jazz" is a searing set, well worth the search. Enjoy!

I only recently discovered this talented singing artist's great music and this CD is the best one of all that I've collected so far. She sounds better than ever and her passion for the lyrics and song styling is evident in every track. It is rich and soulful and wrenching. Lots of emotion and heart.

Do yourself a favor and pick up this great, multi-track CD. It is a great assortment of material...with long playing versions skillfully arranged and performed.

One of the greatest crimes in the history of Music is that Bonnie Bramlett is more known for playing Roseanne's waitress pal than she is for her amazing singing. Bonnie Bramlett is now and has always been the "White Queen Of Soul" - throw in her amazing talent for singing Rock, Gospel and Country Rock and you have one of the greatest singers of the 20th Century.

This CD does not let us Bonnie Bramlett fans down. She's as good, if not better, than ever! This writer became a fan in a little club in Los Angeles in 1968. As we used to say back then "Bonnie blew my mind!". 38 years later and she's still doing it.

Keep 'em comin', Bonnie! You are the very BEST!

And here she is,ladies and gentlemen - the great white Ikette herself - passionate,fierce and gifted with voice that blows the roof,smash the windows,peels the wallpaper and puts most of the so-called singers to shame.
Talk about legend - not only she started as the only ever white girl in The Ikettes,was part of classic Delaney & Bonnie duo,worked with everyone from Joe Cocker,Eric Clapton,George Harrison to Leon Russell and The Allman Brothers Band back in a day but truly possesed one of the strongest of so-called blue-eyed soul singers voices - ever.
Just check out any of her old recordings,that voice was part soul,part gospel,full blown hurricane that white girls never came close to (young Rita Coolidge actually sang like this but before you could say "Kristofferson" she went on to became another MOR ballad singer and forgot about real music).
We have not heard from Bramlett in a very long time.Sure,there were occasional guest spots here and there,even the album out of nowhere called
I'm Still The Same - some 20+ years out of recording studio in between her previous Step By Step - so anything by her is super-rare and high quality. Nobody else but Ike Turner compliments her singing here in liner notes and he definitely knows a thing or two about great singers.The album starts with a bang - "Love the one you're with" is such rousing gospel-rock that I almost yelled "Lord have mercy" (being white east-european,I just dropped everything and turned my head in surprise),from there on Bramlett goes through blues,soul,rock and - surprise - even some mellow jazz numbers that I never knew she could sing so well.Backing musicians are excellent and lady herself is like a cat with nine lives,older & wiser with a scarr here and there but passion and intensity are worthy of the best Rock and Roll Hall of Famers - only those with experiences through life's ups and downs can muster such joy and meaning through their music,truly its not just singing but her soul is pouring out through my speakers so much that I have to literally leave everything and just listen.
Bramlett covers Chuck Berry, Nina Simone and Sam Cooke - I would never tell her own "Change is gonna come" would one day eclipse even Tina Turner - but where she surprises me the most is old and usualy boring "Love hurts" that sounds like honest reflective look in a mirror,first time ever that this song grabbs me so help me God.
Ah yes,have I mentioned that here she reunites with two girls from The Ikettes - they sang together in 1960s and now they are in studio again...
This is the world's best blue-eyed soul female singer - never mind these kids on MTV,if you want to hear true singer,this is the one.

It was Ike turner's "opinion" on the cd liner that convinced me to buy this album yesterday. Best impulse purchase I have made in months and just in time to make my ten best of the year list. Not a bad track on this cd and many quickly recognizable song choices are given fresh life and vitality. Charlie Daniels does not have nearly as much cred with me as Ike does, but Charlie IS right when he says that no one does blue eyed soul better than Bonnie.

Thirty-five years passed since I had heard of Bonnie(I thought she was wonderful in the 60's) . I got older, she got older and Lord did she get better.

This is a fantastic CD -- one of Bonnie's best. Fans should be aware that an export version named "I Can Laugh About It Now" (issued by ZOHO Music L.L.C.) exists with the same tracks in a different order.

Bonnie Bramlett is still one of the best singers around. Glad I
purchased this album...Hint, her kids are just as good..Check out Bekka
Bramlett

Bonnie Bramlett, aka Bonnie Sheridan, is the quintessential, female blues and jazz singer. Her smoky and soulful voice pulls at your heartstrings until your dreched in emotion.

I first heard her beautiful voice in the 1980's when she sang on the Mother's Day episode of "Roseanne". I was hooked, to say the least. Since, I have always made it a point to pull audiences to me in much the same way. If I don't feel the emotion of a song the way Ms. Bramlett makes me feel hers, I won't sing it.

Anyone who enjoys Jazz and Blues should check her out. You won't be disappointed.

I have enjoyed Bonnie since the first time I heard her, On Tour With Eric Clapton and Friends. I remember being in the groove when Bonnie asked, "Can we have some red lights, 'cause this is a red light song?" She then knocked my socks off as she belts out Bessie Griffin blues anthem, "That's What My Man Is For."

Bonnie continued to show her great writing talent. She shared writing a song with Leon Russell that was named "Groupie," but before she could get it recorded, The Carpenters changed the title and released the record now called, "Superstar".

Other reviewers have given you most of her biography,. but when Bonnie returned to her music with "I'm Still the Same" and now this great session, "Roots, Blues & Jazz", it's still apparent, her haunting voice will echo through the ages.