Delaney & Bonnie & Friends
Biography Delaney & Bonnie & Friends
Delaney & Bonnie
Delaney Bramlett (b. 1 July 1939, Ponotoc County, Mississippi, USA - d. 27 December 2008, Los Angeles, California, USA) learned the guitar in his youth, and migrated to Los Angeles in 1959. He became a session musician; his most notable early work was as a member of the Shindogs, the house band for the ABC-TV series Shindig! (1964-66), which also featured guitarist/keyboardist Leon Russell. Bonnie Bramlett (neé Bonnie Lynn O'Farrell, b. 8 November 1944, Alton, Illinois, USA) was an accomplished singer at an early age, performing with blues guitarist Albert King at age 14 and in the Ike & Tina Turner Revue at 15[2] - the first-ever white Ikette "for three days in a black wig and Man Tan skin darkener." She moved to Los Angeles in 1967, and met and married Delaney later that year.
Through their work in the Shindogs, Delaney and Leon Russell had many connections in the music business, and were able to quickly form a band of solid, if transient, musicians around Delaney and Bonnie. The band became known as "Delaney & Bonnie and Friends" due to its regular changes of personnel. They secured a recording contract with Stax Records, and released their first album, Home, on Stax in early 1969. The album was not successful - perhaps due to poor promotion, as it was one of 27 albums simultaneously released by Stax in that label's attempt to establish itself in the album market.
Delaney and Bonnie moved to Elektra Records for their second album, Accept No Substitute (1969). While not a big seller either, Accept No Substitute created a buzz in music industry circles when, upon hearing pre-release mixes of the album, George Harrison offered Delaney and Bonnie a contract with the Beatles' Apple Records label - which Delaney and Bonnie signed despite their prior contractual commitment to Elektra. Although the Apple contract was subsequently voided, this incident began a falling-out between Delaney and Elektra, culminating in the band's release from their Elektra contract in late 1969.
On the strength of Accept No Substitute, and at his friend Harrison's suggestion,Eric Clapton took Delaney & Bonnie and Friends on the road in mid-1969 as the opening act for his band Blind Faith. Clapton became fast friends with Delaney, Bonnie and their band, preferring their music to Blind Faith's; he would often appear on stage with Delaney & Bonnie and Friends during this period, and continued to record and tour with them following Blind Faith's August 1969 breakup. Clapton helped broker a new record deal for Delaney and Bonnie with his then-US label, Atco (Atlantic) Records, and appears (with Harrison, Dave Mason, and others) on Delaney and Bonnie's third album, the live On Tour with Eric Clapton (Atco; recorded in the UK 7 December 1969, released June 1970). This album would be the most successful of Delaney and Bonnie's career, reaching #29 on the Billboard album charts and achieving RIAA Gold Record status. Clapton also recruited Delaney and Bonnie and their band to back him on his debut solo album, recorded in late 1969/early 1970 and produced by Delaney.
Delaney and Bonnie continued to make well-regarded, if modestly-selling, albums over the rest of their career. Their next two Atco albums, To Bonnie from Delaney (1970) and the largely-acoustic Motel Shot (1971) charted, and "Never Ending Song of Love," a single taken from Motel Shot, was Billboard's #67 single of 1971. The band also made a cameo appearance in Richard C. Sarafian's film Vanishing Point (1971), and performed a live radio broadcast for New York's WABC-FM (now WPLJ), backed by Duane Allman, Gregg Allman and (in one of his last performances) King Curtis, in July 1971. (The latter, while never officially released on album as Elton John's 11-17-70 show from the same concert series was, has been heavily bootlegged over the years and remains readily available.) By late 1971, however, Delaney and Bonnie's often-tempestuous relationship began to show signs of strain. Their next album was rejected by Atco on grounds of poor quality, with Atco/Atlantic electing to sell Delaney and Bonnie's recording contract - including this album's master tapes - to CBS as a result. Columbia/CBS released this album, in a different track sequence from that submitted to Atco, as D&B Together in March 1972. It would be Delaney and Bonnie's last album of new material, as the couple divorced in 1973.
Delaney and Bonnie continued to work in the music business - and, in Bonnie's case, in Hollywood as an actress - after their breakup. Delaney's most recent solo album, A New Kind of Blues, was released in early 2008. After an extended illness due to complications from gall bladder surgery in June 2008, Delaney Bramlett passed away on 27 December 2008 in the arms of his wife, actress Susan Lanier Bramlett.
Bonnie enjoyed success during the 1970s and early 80's as a backing singer with Elvin Bishop, with Stephen Stills and with The Allman Brothers Band; she subsequently turned to acting, appearing (as Bonnie Sheridan) in a recurring role on the TV series Roseanne (1991-95). Her most recent album is 2005's Roots, Blues & Jazz.
