Newspaper Page Text
Yo hombrx, ^
meet me at the
Georgia Bar
esta noche, ok?
We’ll smoke a
. lew Cubans. ^
159 W. Clayton Street • 546-^
hlt|i:/A«« M.iK'gui JU-t/-ho|Kj/iiidi\.liln>l
/<
MMIIITS
Ado*noRe
In A
RUSH!
We have
delicious fast
lunches for
when you
don’t have
much time.
1/2 Sandwich, Soup
and a Cookie
$3.99
Gourmet Meats
and Cheeses
Healthy Fresh Salads
Daily Made Pastries,
Cakes and Bread
1650 S. Lumpkin
706-546-8915
FLAGPOLE INTERVIEW: RANDALL BRAMBLETT
a candid conversation with an artist who predated what so
many whipper-snappers think of as the athens music scene
Randall Bramblell hit Athens in the early '70s,
playing at UGA fraternity parties with his cover
band, King David and the Slaves. He quickly fell
m with Athenians who had also been playing music
since high school and joined a succession of bands
featuring a revolving cast of characters but almost
always Davis Causey, still Bramblett’s longtime
friend, collaborator and partner.
Bramblett and his band will celebrate the release
of his sturdy new collection of classic rock songs on
Capricorn Records, See Through Me, at the
Georgia Theatre Saturday, Aug. 15. To mark that
occasion, Flagpole sent music writer John Britt to
interview Randall. John came back to say he
thought the interview wasn’t cover story quality,
and word soon came from the Bramblett camp that
Randall thought John wasn't really interested in
anything but "alternative’’ music. Flagpole then ais-
patched kindly old publisher Pete McCommons,
who, though a musical ignoramous (early Leonard
Cohen is as far as he got), has known and admired
Randall for, um, quite some time.
What follows is the official Flagpolc/Randall
Bramblett interview, in which Randall discusses his
place >n Athens music, reflects on his musical roots
and talks about the ups and downs of making a liv-
in gf or almost 30years in music. John Britt's notes
from his interview, which tell the Bramblett story
more succinctly and perhaps even more interestingly,
are included separately.
FLAGPOLE: In a certain sense you’re like the spir
it of Athens. You go back before what many here
would think is Athens music: there’s a whole
depth there that they may not know.
BRAMBLETT: Well, I think what Athens is known
for is not for music like I'm doing at all. That
Athens music is really after my time somewhat.
Like the B-52’s and R.E.M. and Pylon and such:
that became really a different sound that nobody
else was doing here. But the sound I was doing
was not a particularly different sound; that’s
why it’s not distinctively an Athens sound. It
doesn’t...
FLAGPOLE: No, but you yourself, your life in
music is what Athens is about: so many people
wanting a life in music, and you’ve lived it.
BRAMBLETT: Yeah, I guess so. The thing that
makes it disconnected here is that a lot of what’s
known as Athens music is pretty much a rejec
tion of anything like what I was doing: any of
the Southern, Allman Brothers kind of stuff.
That’s why there’s a disconnection. I felt that
with John, that there was no respect at all for
anything that was not alternative or at least
there’s no respect for what I was doing.
Trying to figure out what my place is here in
Athens music, I’ve just got to make my own
place. I cannot count on being accepted by a lot
of people here. It’s kind of cool when I play with
’ W idespread and a lot of people arc digging it.
people who arc not even in their 20s. Stuff is on
the Internet the next day. Vliat I guess I’m try
ing to say is that I cannot expect to be accepted
by youtli. who arc a large pan of the community.
That’s okay. I’ve just got to make my owti place
here. A lot of times, I tell you. I’ve felt out of
place in Athens rcccndy. Part of that is my own
fault for not being more involved, but it’s not just
that: it's the kind of music I play and how old I
am. Those two prejudices right there tend to
alienate me from die music scene.
FLAGPOLE: Talking to Terr)' Melton once about
all diat Normaltown music - another layer back
before the present Athens music - he said he
started out playing with some cf the black bands,
so there’s that whole other layer back even
before y’all came.
BRAMBLETT: Yes, Jim Hawkins and all those folks
were playing in the black clubs and always had
b’ack people in the bands. It was really more
integrated than it is today. That is an earlier
level; drat is the beginning of high school, and
people playing in bands. Before that there might
have been some rockabilly or country going on,
but that black music is what white people could
really get attached to and love. I mean, that’s
where I started playing, too, just loving that black
music. That's all we were playing. We just had a
thing where all we wanted to do was soul music.
We didn’t want to do any Beatles music or any-
thii’^ like that. We had a loyalty to black music.
That’s really where our stuff came from. It’s like
alternative, R.E.M. and all that was noi coming
from a black thing; it was coming from a differ
ent place. r
FLAGPOLE: You started doing that in Jcsup, ir
south Georgia, before you came up here to
Athens?
BRAMBLETT: Yes. All through high school we
played... We injesup were mudumore segregat
ed than it was here. I ibn’t know what the deal
was, but we didn’t know ary black musicians,
really. I’m sure there were good black musicians
there at the time, but we didn’t ever interact, and
it so weird. Now that I lcok back on it, we
missed that whole culture; we really did. It’s a
shame, but that’s the way it was. But here it
seemed to be more... the university or some
thing...
FLAGPOLE: Athens is more segregated now than
it was then.
BRAMBLETT: Maybe so, but when I came up here
and joined a band in the ‘70s. we had Bennett
Johnson, a black bass player, and we were like,
wow. we can do this... so in a way they’re not
that connected, I don't think. It doesn’t mean
drat Adicits is less supportive, but in other ways
they’re kind of disconnected and kind of oppos
ing. and there's a prejudice against anybody
who’s not doing alternative and is trying to do
something worthwhile.
FLAGPOLE: Your music is energetic, and your
lyncs arc the same kinds of things they're singing
about and writing about.
BRAMBLETT: Well, it may be a little bit different,
but I drink it is; creativity is young. I mean, what
arc they going to be doing at 40 or 50, just give
up music and not try' to be creative? To me, I’m
doing what is cutting-edge music. It may not
sound like cutting-edge music to alternative peo
ple or garage bands or whatever, but we just try
to do the best we can and try to push it a little
each time and do something creative. That’s
what we did on this record: strip it down some
and try not to overproduce it.
FLAGPOLE: How do you deal with what we were
talking about, the difficulties of doing your own
stuff in an atmosphere that’s skewed toward a
different kind of music?
BRAMBLETT: What you have to do, unless you’re
somebody like Widespread or Phish - and they
make some records but not a tremendous
amount of records — unless you’re somebody
like that, which we’re not, you have to be on the
radio in order to stay in business, in order to get
yourself heard. And the formats today on radio
arr pretty narrow and defined. They’re getting a
little different, but you have urban hip hop and
stuff and then you have classic rock and modem
rock and AC, which is adult contemporary. So
the problem is that for our kind of music there’s
not a readily available format... There are now
150-200 Triple A stations, “adult album altema* *
tivc” is what it stands for, and they’re like FM
used to be and play a broad range from
Americana — Six String Drag, something like
that — all the way to alternative music. They’re
not going to play stuff like Sting, but they’ll play
Tracey Chapman, John Hyatt, Depeche Mode,
Ben Harper: some of the younger people that are
not going to get played on alternative radio sta
tions and modem rock radio stations like 99X.
Your guy John Britt said AAA is a ghetto for
old people. That’s bullshit. They’re all different,
but they play a wide range of music. That’s all it
means. They’re covering a type of music that’s
not on the other formats. That’s where groups
like die Vigilantes and us and other people are
going to get played. TheyYc not big stations.
AUGUST 12, 1998