{"id":12258,"date":"2017-02-15T05:30:38","date_gmt":"2017-02-15T10:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=12258"},"modified":"2017-01-09T09:17:30","modified_gmt":"2017-01-09T14:17:30","slug":"nothing-but-david-bromberg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2017\/02\/15\/nothing-but-david-bromberg\/","title":{"rendered":"Nothing But David Bromberg"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Bromberg<\/strong> has been making records since 1972. He’s never become a household name; that fact has more to do with his unassuming approach to music. He’s no showboating spotlight-stealer; rather than reach for fame and fortune, he’s maintained a relatively low-key profile on the music scene for decades.<\/p>\n

But those in-the-know have long sought him as a collaborator and\/or sideman. Bromberg has lent his talents to music by artists from Richie Havens<\/strong><\/a> to Ringo Starr<\/strong>, Eagles<\/strong> to Sha Na Na<\/strong>, Bob Dylan<\/strong> to Edie Brickell<\/strong><\/a>. He’s co-written songs with George Harrison<\/strong><\/a>, and was mentored in his early days by gospel-blues legend Reverend Gary Davis<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

While he’s proficient in any number of genres, Bromberg is best-known as a folk artist. While he began releasing Americana long before that genre classification had been coined, he remains under the radar of many who follow that style. The Grammy-winning guitarist (Best Traditional Folk Album in 2008) is convinced the Nashville-based Americana Music Association \u201chas never heard of\u201d him.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Assuming that’s true, it may well be because Bromberg doesn’t tour extensively. In fact, he took a nearly two-decade break (roughly 1990 to 2007) from recording and performance. Even now his primary focus seems to be on teaching guitar and running the violin sales\/repair shop he and his wife operate in their hometown of Wilmington, Delaware. According to his website, Bromberg’s last run of live dates consisted of a half-dozen shows in February 2011.<\/p>\n

But Bromberg says that he’s excited about his upcoming tour, one that includes 18 dates between late December and early February. \u201cWhat I look forward to is playing with my friends,\u201d he says. \u201cI really love this band. And getting on the road, we have a great time together.\u201d But one senses it’s not about the touring itself, and Bromberg readily admits as much. \u201cPlaying music is a big part of it, but it’s not all of it. The things I look forward to are seeing the guys, and getting onstage together playing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Released in October, Bromberg’s latest album, The Blues, The Whole Blues, and Nothing But the Blues<\/i> is more ambitious than its title might suggest. While many of today’s artists nominally working within the blues idiom tend toward a monochromatic approach, Bromberg’s The Blues…<\/i> is a veritable travelogue through the genre’s many sub-styles. \u201cMy record covers a variety of different kinds of blues, and that’s unusual,\u201d he says. \u201cI think that a lot of people have a very limited idea of what the blues is, and as a result they do kind of limited interpretations of it.\u201d Clearly not wanting to be pushed into saying something controversial, he hastens to add, \u201cI could be wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

On The Blues, The Whole Blues, and Nothing But the Blues<\/i>, Robert Johnson<\/strong>‘s \u201cWalkin’ Blues\u201d is delivered at a measured pace, but with blistering slide guitar and crunchy electric lead that positions Bromberg closer to the Paul Butterfield Blues Band<\/strong><\/a> than to Johnson. Elsewhere on The Blues…<\/i> the guitarist presents a bravura reading of Ray Charles’ \u201cA Fool For You,\u201d featuring nothing more than a solo acoustic guitar and an endearingly wobbly (yet heartfelt) vocal. \u201cThat’s the hardest tune I have to play,\u201d Bromberg says. \u201cIt was very hard to develop that arrangement. It’s my attempt \u2013 as close as I can \u2013 to recreate Ray Charles<\/strong><\/a>‘ piano part on guitar.\u201d<\/p>\n

For a man with modest goals \u2013 he measured success early on when he \u201ccould take a cab home from a gig late at night, instead of the subway\u201d \u2013 Bromberg’s body of work remains impressive. While he admits that there are a few tracks in his catalog of nearly 20 albums that he would like to fix, he counts The Blues, The Whole Blues, and Nothing But the Blues <\/i>as his favorite release. \u201cThat’s fortunate,\u201d he chuckles. \u201cAnd typical. But also true.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David Bromberg has been making records since 1972. He’s never become a household name; that fact has more to do with his unassuming approach to music. He’s no showboating spotlight-stealer; […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12259,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,30,41],"tags":[2966],"class_list":["post-12258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blues","category-folk","category-interview","tag-david-bromberg","cat-9-id","cat-30-id","cat-41-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12258"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12260,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12258\/revisions\/12260"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}