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RELEASE DATE 12/12/2025 - BILLY BRANCH - THE BLUES is MY BIOGRAPHY
BILLY BRANCH & THE SONS OF THE BLUES
Blues Is My Biography
Rosa’s Lounge Records
It’s fitting that the inaugural release on the newly launched Rosa’s Lounge Records is by harmonica master Billy Branch who’s been associated with the renowned West Side venue for over 40 years. The 11 tracks (nine originals, two covers) were produced by music renaissance man Larry Batiste with four tracks recorded in Alameda, California, and seven in Chicago.
Guitarist Wilson Raab, bassist Troy Lamkins, keyboardist Tony Lufrano, and drummer Aaron Green accompany Branch on the California tracks while guitarist Giles Corey, bassist Ari Seder, keyboardist Ariyo, and drummer Dionte Skinner are on the Chicago sessions. A horn section augments four tracks.
The boisterous blues anthem “Hole In Your Soul” features the indefatigable nonagenarian Bobby Rush on vocals and harmonica who along with Branch exclaim “If you don’t dig the blues you got a hole in your soul”; the tune is akin to the spirit of Little Milton’s “The Blues Is All Right” and Z.Z. Hill’s “Down Home Blues.” It should get a lot of play on blues radio shows. The gospel-tinged plea of empathy for the less fortunate, “Begging For Change,” features Shemekia Copeland and Ronnie Baker Brooks.
The two covers are the gritty funk of “Call Your Bluff” penned by blues drummer Andrew “Blaze” Thomas, and “Dead End Street,” a major hit in 1967 by fellow Chicago native Lou Rawls (who recorded numerous blues and jazz tunes in his early career). My wife said this version reminded her of the late Chris Youlden’s post Savoy Brown recordings and I concur.
Branch’s brilliant originals contain various grooves and themes. Two of my favorites are the autobiographical title track, a Percy Mayfield-like ballad, and the moody, and equally autobiographical, “Harmonica Man,” a tune that was brewing in Branch’s mind for eight years. Nonetheless, the other tunes are equally enjoyable. There’s the reggae-flavored “Ballad Of The Million Men” and a hard-driving shuffle of betrayal, “Real Good Friends.” The album concludes with a funky wall-of-sound instrumental with blazing horns and puissant harp.
Billy Branch is one of the premier blues harpists of the last 50 years and his exceptional playing provides a tutorial for aspiring harmonica players. Billy Branch is a direct link to Chicago greats like Junior Wells, James Cotton, Carey Bell, Walter Horton, and Willie Dixon (among others). Blues Is My Biography was a lifetime in the making and will be a contender for blues album of the year.
– Thomas J. Cullen III
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