Doyle Bramhall II – “New Faith”

When autumn comes, the days get gloomier, the rain starts falling, I get to needing music more than in the sun-blessed days of spring and summer. Music like Doyle Bramhall II’s Rich Man.

Rich Man was among my favorites records of 2016 and is definitely one that feeds the soul. Two songs stand out for me. “November” is a beautifully-rendered remembrance of times spent with his musician father, Doyle Bramhall, who I was lucky enough to interview a few years before he passed in 2011. “New Faith” – sung as a duet with Norah Jones on the album – is illuminated from within by humanity and hope.

I don’t have any specific quotes on “New Faith” from my interview with Doyle Bramhall II, conducted one sunny morning in September 2016, but I have one that speaks for the album as a whole:

“What I’m doing is just trying to share my experiences and thoughts. The hope is that people would be touched by the messages and the music and that it could actually help people. Music is the universal language. And it’s also the highest art form, according to Sufi. So it has the capacity to heal.”

It’s Thanksgiving week, right? Not just Black Friday Sales week. (Ugh.) On this dreary, dubious Monday – three days before the fourth Thursday in November – I’d like to say thank you, Mr. Bramhall, for allowing me to hear the hope.

“The road ahead lets go of the past

Start building on the good we have

Hearts are the same, hopeful and true

Ties lost inside the things we choose

When somehow faith got confused

Maybe it’s time”

— from “New Faith” by Doyle Bramhall II