Billy Bratcher – In the lobby
Cow Island Music – CIM 021
Big Time Woman – Who’s Sorry Now – TB BLues – My Walking Stick – The Sweeper and the debutante – Why – He calls That Religion – Sweet Sue, Just You – Any Old Time – My Melancholy Baby – Maybe It’s the Blues – Someday Sweetheart – Champagne Charlie – Diamonds Don’t Mean A Thing – This Hotel Room – Going Back To Tampa – She Ain’t Rose – If We Should Never Meet Again (This Side of Heaven)
Billy Bratcher is well known for being the slappin’ drivin’ rhythmic force behind the rockabilly/honky tonk band the Starline Rhythm Boys. He also toured with Wayne “The Train” Hancock.
His debut solo album is a joyful collection of music from the 20s and the 30s (or at least played in that style for three of them), drawing upon the same source as Leon Redbone. Redbone’s influence can be heard throughout the album, and Billy Bratcher acknowledges it, but this collection of songs is very much his own. His arrangements are perfect, and the band, featuring saxophones, clarinet, trombone, cornet, piano, dobro, jug, bones, and a Venuti-esque violin, is simply perfect. Bratcher is a solid ragtime guitar player, but his voice wins the game most of all. If we had heard him sing harmonies and backing vocals with the Starline Rhythm Boys, little would we have known that he had such a beautiful and warm voice.
With In the Lobby, you have the perfect album to relax and chill. So sit in your favorite armchair, pour yourself a drink, close your eyes, and enjoy. Hey, look! There’s Dorothy Parker passing by. Won’t you buy her one, too?
Fred “Virgil” Turgis