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Jimmie Bratcher—Far Enough—Ain’t Skeert Tunes

Growing up in a musical family in Kansas City, Jimmie

was exposed to all forms of music, allowing him to
develop an eclectic taste in music and it was after

hearing the electric blues of Eric Clapton in the sixties,
that he developed a passion for an unrefined, harsher
demanding type of electric guitar sound. Pursuing this
musical genre he discovered Albert King, B.B. King, and

various other great bluesmen.

As his interest grew, his guitar skills improved to the point that in his early 20’s he
began to make his mark in the blues world, unfortunately, drink and drugs de-

stroyed that career along with his marriage to Sherrie. They later re-married but,
the preacher performing the ceremony insisted that Jimmie forsake his music, and

devote himself solely to his wife and religion. So, he put down his guitar and he
later became a fully ordained preacher himself.

Twenty years later in 1997, his son Jason gave him a Fender Telecaster guitar,

Jimmie subsequently chose to become a travelling preacher. His touring and evan-
gelising energised his soul to the extent that he released an album entitled ‘Honey
In the Rock,’ in 2001. Since then he has released 12 albums and 2 DVDs gaining the

moniker of ‘The Electric Rev’. Here, Jimmie takes lead vocals and lead guitar for
this, his 13th album. Joining him in the studio are; Eric Stark; keyboards, lap steel,
and Irish penny whistle, Craig Kew; bass, Brandon Draper and Rod Lincoln; drums

and percussion, Aaron Mayfield; organ. The horn section is Bob Harvey and Steve
Molloy; trumpet, Mark Cohick; baritone saxophone and Brett Jackson; tenor saxo-
phone. Jimmie and Eric Stark, share the production duties, they also co-wrote the

original 11 numbers here.

The opener, ‘Far Enough (The Story Of Mike & Clark)’, inhabits a southern drawling
feel of slide, slowburning organ, joyful piano and percussion, delivering a tale of

salvation from the demon drink, by the benevolent intervention of one friend to
another. The goodtime and very personal tribute ‘Memphis Slim’, to his friend Jim
Gaines, has a very tasteful and energetic horn rich Stax feel about it and given

greater depth by splendid backing vocals from Charmelle Cofield. The bouncy,
Stax/soulfully, swinging horn fuelled ‘Don’t Count Me Out’, is simply full of toe-
tapping joy. The slowburning blues tale of dereliction in ‘My Name Is Sinner’, amply

displays Jimmie’s conviction, devotion and emotion, his striking vocals are accom-
panied by soaring heartfelt guitar work and searing organ.

On that note, the sombre piano led ballad ‘Chains’, written by Eric Stark embodies

the personal and religious faith in Jimmie’s whole being. The affecting slowburn
blues of ‘The Road That Leads Home’ is a stark plea for peace and redemption. The
slow, piano and haunting Irish whistle driven ‘When He Dreams (The Cowboy