Late in April, New West Records announced the August release of a four LP, 41-track box set celebrating the 50th anniversary of Austin, Texas, blues music club Antone’s, a place that has helped launch or bolster the careers of many during the past decades, including the likes of Stevie Ray and Jimmie Vaughan, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Doyle Bramhall and Doyle Bramhall II, and Gary Clark Jr., in addition to serving as an important stop for such established bluesmen as Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Otis Rush, Albert King, and numerous others. Due out August 22, Antone’s: 50 Years of the Blues features rare, out-of-print, and newly unearthed live and studio recordings from the Antone’s archives.
Here’s one of two advance tracks the label released from the set’s opening double LP The Last Real Texas Blues Album, which, according to the press announcement for the set, “includes 18 songs of new material from artists integral to the history of Antone’s — Jimmie Vaughan, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Charlie Sexton, Ruthie Foster, Doyle Bramhall II, Bobby Rush, Derek O’Brien, C.J. Chenier + Muddy Waters’ guitarist John Primer and son Big Bill Morganfield — as well as its next generation leaders, Kam Franklin, Eve Monsees, McKinley James and more.”
We’ll tell you more about the rest of that opening LP and box set further on up the road but, in the meantime, enjoy this track from second generation bluesman Doyle Bramhall II, a gritty take on Eddie Taylor’s “Bad Boy” that’s vintage Bramhall, perhaps from a set with his band Smokestack, judging from Bramhall’s vocals and backing by J.J. Johnson on drums.